💶 BAföG and training funding without parental support
In brief
BAföG in principle counts your parents' income towards your needs – regardless of whether the parents actually pay. For care leavers, § 36 BAföG is therefore central: if you can make it credible that your parents are not paying the maintenance amount taken into account and your training is thereby at risk, the training funding office (Amt für Ausbildungsförderung) pays, on application, an advance without counting this amount – regardless of whether the parents would be legally obliged to pay maintenance. The office can then recover the amount from the parents itself.
Step by step
- Submit a BAföG applicationFill in the annexes on parental income as far as possible.
- Apply for advance paymentIf parents cannot be reached or refuse to cooperate, submit a separate application for advance payment under § 36 BAföG.
- Make the risk credibleMake it credible that the training is at risk without the advance payment (e.g. affidavit, confirmation from the Jugendamt about the break in contact).
- Check parent-independent fundingCheck whether a condition for parent-independent funding under § 11 Abs. 3 BAföG is met (e.g. five years of employment after your 18th birthday, having turned 30 at the start of training).
- File an objection if refusedConsult a student advice service (see Wegweiser for students).
Deadlines
- Having grown up in residential care or a foster family does not in itself justify parent-independent funding under § 11 Abs. 3 BAföG – the conditions there (including five years of employment, age, evening grammar school/Kolleg) must be met independently. The route that is practically usually relevant for care leavers is the advance payment under § 36 BAföG, not parent-independent funding.
- Advance payment does not relieve you of giving information about your parents in the application, as far as known – the office in principle hears the parents before it pays in advance.
- General BAföG application questions (forms, deadlines, housing benefit alternative) are deliberately not repeated here – see the detailed Wegweiser for students.
In depth · legal basis, figures and practice – for advisers and professionals
Advance payment in detail
§ 36 Abs. 2 BAföG extends advance payment to cases in which the parents do not provide the required information or documents despite being asked to, and fines or administrative coercion do not succeed within two months or are legally inadmissible. The office's recourse against the parents (§ 37 BAföG) takes place independently of you – you do not have to deal with the parents yourself.
Parent-independent funding under § 11 Abs. 3 BAföG
This provision disregards parental income regardless of whether it is actually paid if, among other things, you have turned 30 at the start of training or have worked for at least five years after your 18th birthday in employment whose earnings could cover your living costs. For many care leavers who start training or studies directly after youth welfare, these conditions do not yet apply – which is why § 36 BAföG remains the practically more important route.
A question about your situation that this page does not answer? Write to us or use the contact form – we will tell you which office is responsible and what to bring. Free of charge, without individual legal advice.