Every third citizen’s benefit notice is incorrect – act now!

Every third citizen’s benefit notice is incorrect – act now!

Did you know that almost every third decision in connection with citizens' money is incorrect? According to reports from Against Hartz In June 2025, there were over 107,000 ongoing objection proceedings nationwide regarding social benefits. An analysis of the resolved objections shows that 9,630 notices had to be corrected completely and 2,384 had to be corrected partially. This results in an astounding error rate of 31.4 percent. These figures make it clear that there is no shortage of insecurity in job centers and that affected citizens suffer from the threat of rent arrears and social stigmatization.

The various areas of conflict in the contradictions are particularly under scrutiny. These include, among other things, cancellation and reimbursement decisions, the recognition of income and assets and the costs of accommodation. While some job centers, such as in the Rheinisch-Bergisches Kreis, boast an error rate of only 13.3 percent, there are also worrying outliers: In the Ilm district, the error rate is an incredible 71 percent. This condition often leads to unnecessary escalations caused by a lack of solid justification for discretionary decisions.

File an objection – here’s how it works!

Anyone who is dissatisfied with their decision can lodge an objection within one month. That's how it looks Lawyer.org before. Regardless of whether the application was rejected completely or only partially - an objection can be based on various reasons, such as social benefits not being taken into account. The average processing time for an objection is three to five weeks. It is important to know that the objection does not have a suspensive effect, so the decision remains valid until a decision is made on the objection.

How does the objection procedure work exactly? It must be submitted in writing, orally or, in some cases, electronically, and it should be fully completed to include all relevant data. Make sure that the objection is received by the job center on time, as the decision becomes legally binding after the deadline has expired. If the job center fails to act, an action for failure to act can be initiated at the social court, as shown below CitizensMoney.org is explained.

Recommendations for improvement

According to the experts at, in order to regain trust in the job centers and reduce the bureaucratic maze of errors and ambiguities Against Hartz various measures necessary. This includes more transparency through the publication of error rates, technical support for job centers with high error rates and the improvement of IT systems for plausibility checks. The primary goal remains to offer people in difficult life situations reliable support.

For many, dealing with job centers is a daily challenge. The current situation should give us all something to think about and encourage us to question the structures and discuss possibilities for improvement. After all, these are fundamental social questions that affect not only every individual, but also our society itself.