04. Advice on Completing Applications

We recommend filling out the application via the BAföG digital portal. This offers numerous advantages. The information is answered in the form of a questionnaire and immediately checked for plausibility and completeness and transferred to the necessary forms.

You can find a brief overview of all the documents and forms you need in our "Check List" help tool.

Form 1 (Questions and evidence)

- If you do not live with your parents or do not live in an apartment owned by your parents, you will receive a flat-rate rent supplement of 380 euros. For this we need a current rental contract or a certificate of accommodation.
- If you pay your own health insurance contributions, i.e. if you are not insured with your family, you will receive a supplement to your insurance, which depends on the form of insurance. If you are a student with compulsory insurance, the supplement is 137 euros (102 euros health insurance + 35 euros nursing care insurance). If you are voluntarily insured (mostly from the age of 30), the supplement is 233 Euro (185 Euro health insurance and 48 Euro nursing care insurance; for this we need a certificate of your health insurance).
- The bank details must be correct (IBAN in the EURO area).
- Information about your own income concerns the expected income in the period of approval (usually one year). Gross earnings of up to 6672 euros are exempt from deduction for single persons (in the case of an internship allowance or similar, lower, different amounts apply).
- Single students who have not yet reached the age of 30 are entitled to an asset exemption amount of 15,000 euros. For those older than 30, the asset protection amount is 45,000 euros. This includes: Savings, shares and securities, endowment life insurance, motor vehicles (including motorcycles) or real estate. For the spouse or registered partner and for each child, the amount is increased by 2,300 euros.
Your asset details will be checked annually with the Federal Central Tax Office (Bundeszentralamt für Steuern).

Form 2
- does not need to be submitted if you submit a certificate of enrollment showing the semester of study and the university semester.

Form 3 for your parents and your spouse or registered partner.
You can easily ask them to participate via e-mail in BAföG-Digital and they can also fill out their form via the portal.

- Each parent is required to fill out form 3.
- Proof of income from the penultimate calendar year before the start of the grant period (but see point 5) must be provided by submitting the relevant income tax assessment notice. Therefore, for an application for the winter semester 2024/25, the proof of income for the calendar year 2022 must be submitted.
- If a tax assessment notice for the relevant calendar year is not yet available, an employer's certificate of the gross salary earned and the taxes paid will suffice.
- All parents who are not gainfully employed and receive benefits such as unemployment benefits or pensions must submit (uncertified) copies of the relevant benefit statements, e.g. from the employment agency or pension insurance.
- If the prerequisites for a compulsory assessment of income tax are met, e.g. tradespeople, possibly pensioners, certain tax class combinations, and the relevant tax assessment notice has not yet been issued, a decision will be made on the application taking into account the credible income situation. In this case, the educational grant is paid subject to reclaim. As soon as the tax assessment notice has been received by the Office for Educational Support, a final decision on the application will be made later.