ROUTE
Start-Up Grant (Gründungszuschuss)
If you receive unemployment benefit and want to start a business, the employment agency may top up your rate for six months plus 300 € for social insurance, then 9 months of 300 €. But it is discretionary — and you must apply BEFORE starting.
✓ Checked: 18/07/2026
The Gründungszuschuss is support from the employment agency for people moving from unemployment into self-employment. For six months the agency continues paying your previous benefit rate plus a flat sum towards social insurance, and for a further nine months only that flat sum remains.
COSTS AND DEADLINES
What you pay for on this route
- Phase 1 (6 months)ALG rate + 300 €/month
- Phase 2 (9 months)300 €/month
Deadlines you cannot miss
- Apply BEFORE starting self-employment (before trade registration / tax office)Start-Up Grant: Application and Opinionhard deadline
Amounts follow official fees as of each step’s verification date. Your city may charge a different rate — check the step itself.
› More about this route
The decisive difference from other benefits: it is not an entitlement but a discretionary payment. Even when every condition is met the agency may refuse, and what you can challenge is not the arithmetic but the quality of the reasoning. Weight therefore sits with the business plan and the viability opinion, not with the form.
This three-step route works through it in order: who qualifies at all and which conditions are examined, how the application comes together with an opinion from a competent body, and what happens across the two phases — including the tax and social insurance that are most often forgotten at the start.
REQUIRED DOCUMENTS
All possible documents for this route
- Business plan with financial plan
- Expert viability opinion (chamber/tax adviser/bank)
- CV and proof of qualification
- Employment agency application
WHERE PEOPLE MOST OFTEN LOSE MONEY AND TIME
- Starting the activity before applying. The application belongs before the launch; once the business is registered the support is usually lost.
- Using up the remaining benefit. The application requires a sufficient remaining ALG I entitlement, so waiting until the final weeks does not work.
- Submitting a box-ticking business plan. The decision is discretionary, and it is the plan with its revenue forecast that convinces the assessor or fails to.
- Forgetting contributions and tax. The support replaces neither health insurance nor pension provision, and you pay both yourself from the first month.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS ROUTE
Who can receive the Gründungszuschuss?▾
Someone drawing ALG I who has a sufficient remaining entitlement and is moving into full-time self-employment. Personal and professional aptitude for self-employment must be demonstrated as well.
Why is an application refused although the conditions are met?▾
Because this is a discretionary payment rather than an entitlement. The agency assesses whether the venture will end unemployment durably, and weak evidence of viability is the most common ground for refusal.
Who issues the viability opinion?▾
A competent body: the chamber of industry and commerce, the chamber of crafts, a professional association, a bank or a tax adviser. The opinion is filed together with the business plan and revenue forecast.
Is the support taxable?▾
The support itself is tax-free but raises the rate applied to your other income through the progression rule. Profit from the activity is taxed normally, so set aside a tax reserve from the outset.