What does Bürgergeld cost – and where does the money go?

Administration is already contained in the 59.13 billion euros. According to the report, the additional health gap denotes costs that are not covered by the contributions for Bürgergeld recipients. It is not an additional transfer of money to recipients.

What the cost calculation contains

The report reconstructs the costs from the expenditure statistics of the Federal Employment Agency, the administrative accounts of the BIAJ and figures from the Bertelsmann Foundation on education and participation. In doing so it replaces the narrower administrative figure with a broader definition; it does not add administration twice.

The total is based on unrounded starting values. Education and participation is not completely recorded; municipal integration services are missing. The calculation is therefore not a complete statement of all consequential costs either.

A second perspective: who has payment entitlements?

For 2025 the federal government reports personal payment entitlements totalling 46.65 billion euros. Of this, 24.90 billion fall to German nationals, 5.99 billion to Ukrainian nationals, 7.23 billion to nationals of the eight non-European countries of asylum origin and, as a residual, 8.53 billion to the remaining non-German group. The basis is Table 1 of Bundestag printed paper 21/6855.

Ukraine and the eight countries of asylum origin together come to 13.22 billion euros, that is 28.34 per cent of these payment entitlements. This amount is already included. It may neither be added on top nor understood as a breakdown of the 71.1 billion euros: the data year and the scope of costs differ.

What the figures do not say

Nationality is neither migration background nor individual protection status. The German group includes people with and without a migration background. The report provided to us contains no robust, complete breakdown of this group in euros. The eight countries are Afghanistan, Eritrea, Iraq, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Somalia and Syria.

Payment entitlements are also not the same as cash expenditure. A residual of 387,481 euros remains unallocated between the overall total and the nationality groups reported. Administration and health costs cannot simply be distributed on a per-head basis from this either.

The assessment

The documents show a broad cost base of around 59.1 billion euros for 2024. With the health insurance estimate named in the report this gives a wider orientation of around 71.1 billion euros. Neither an officially settled annual total nor a correspondingly large potential saving follows from this. Administration also covers advice and job placement; medical care does not cease to exist because it is financed differently.