BAföG; application for educational support for pupils

Individual financial support is provided for your school education if the funds required for living expenses and education are not otherwise available.

Purpose and object

BAföG is a legally regulated cash benefit that provides financial support for people in their education.

For full-time education at schools, training assistance is provided in accordance with the provisions of the Federal Training Assistance Act (BAföG) and the Bavarian Training Assistance Act (BayAföG). In Bavaria, under certain conditions, there is an entitlement to funding for grades 5 to 9 at Realschulen and Gymnasien and for grades 7 to 9 at Wirtschaftsschulen.

Education grants are only awarded if the student, their spouse and their parents are unable to cover the costs of education and living expenses on the basis of their own income and assets. In certain cases (e.g. when attending evening classes, colleges and vocational colleges or when working for many years), support is provided without taking parental income into account.

Beneficiaries

Participants in full-time education are generally eligible to apply.

Type and amount

The maximum rate of funding depends on the type of training institution attended and accommodation with parents or, if necessary, accommodation away from home. As a rule, half of the funding is provided as a grant and half as a non-interest-bearing state loan in the case of vocational academy training and half as a grant in the case of other school-based training.

The maximum monthly funding rate for attending

• Vocational schools and technical school classes which do not require a completed vocational training course to be attended is 276 euros,
• 498 for evening secondary schools, vocational postgraduate schools, evening secondary schools and technical secondary school classes that require a completed vocational training course,
• technical college classes that require a completed vocational training course, evening grammar schools, vocational upper secondary schools and colleges 501 euros.

If trainees do not live with their parents or, if necessary, are accommodated away from home, the maximum monthly support rate for attending

• secondary general education schools and vocational schools as well as technical and specialized upper secondary school classes that require a completed vocational training course ,
• Evening secondary schools, vocational postgraduate schools, evening secondary schools and technical secondary school classes, attendance of which requires completed vocational training 775 euros
• Fachschule classes that require a completed vocational training course, evening grammar schools, vocational upper secondary schools and colleges 822 euros.

If trainees themselves are subject to compulsory health insurance contributions, the requirement is increased by €102 per month up to €185.

If trainees themselves are insured for nursing care and are liable to pay contributions, the requirement is increased by 35 euros up to 48 euros per month.

Responsible body

• When attending evening grammar schools and colleges as well as higher technical colleges and academies, the offices for training support at the independent city or district administrative authority in which the training facility is located are responsible.
• When attending other educational establishments (especially schools), the Office for Educational Assistance in whose district the parents have their permanent residence is responsible.

The contact details of the responsible office will be displayed if you select the town in which the educational institution is located or the parents have their permanent residence in the BayernPortal under "My town".

• The documents required depend on the type of grant and can be found in the relevant forms.

Funding is provided for attendance at public schools or state-approved or recognized alternative schools. In the case of other educational institutions, training assistance is only granted if the Bavarian State Ministry of Science and the Arts recognizes the equivalence of attendance at this institution with attendance at a public or state-approved school or university. Educational support is only granted for the time during which the training fully utilizes the trainee's working capacity (full-time training).

Training assistance is generally only provided for initial training, but under certain circumstances it is also possible to receive assistance for further training. The following are generally eligible

• Germans,
• recognized persons entitled to asylum and refugees and
• other foreigners under certain conditions, in particular nationals of EC member states.

Training assistance is generally no longer provided if trainees have reached the age of 45 at the start of the training period for which training assistance is being applied for.

The application must be submitted in writing or electronically (see under "Online procedure") to the responsible Office for Educational Support at the independent city or district administrative authority.

If the applicant has not yet submitted all the necessary documents for the decision on the application, the Office for Educational Support will contact the applicant and ask for the missing documents to be submitted.

Other authorities are generally not involved.

Educational support is only paid from the beginning of the month in which the training begins, i.e. from the month in which the training actually begins, but at the earliest from the month in which the application is received in writing or electronically (see online procedure) by the responsible office for educational support. Education grants are not paid retroactively. A new application is required for each approval period (usually one school year). In the case of subsequent applications, the application must be submitted in full at least two months before the end of the old approval period in order to avoid interruptions in payment.

The processing time or the total processing time between submitting the application and issuing the approval notice can vary depending on the current volume of applications at the office. The more complete an application is submitted or the faster missing documents are submitted, the faster the application can be processed.

Trainees who have completed their initial vocational training and wish to gain further qualifications as technicians, master craftsmen and industrial foremen etc. can receive benefits under the Upgrading Training Assistance Act (AFBG), the so-called ''Aufstiegs-BAföG''.

Certain funding offices are responsible for funding training abroad. Each of the eighteen foreign offices is responsible for a specific foreign country or several foreign countries. The list of offices attached to the explanatory notes to Form 6 (see "Forms") shows which office is responsible for funding the respective education abroad.