Befreiung von der Rundfunkbeitragspflicht / Bremerhaven

Would you like to be exempted from the broadcasting fee? In particular, recipients of social services and people with certain disabilities are entitled to this.

Under certain conditions, an exemption from the broadcasting contribution obligation or a reduction of the contribution can be granted upon application. The exemption from the broadcasting fee obligation is possible for receivers used exclusively for private purposes.

• Severely disabled pass
• Letter (or copy) from the service provider on the granting of the corresponding social benefits

  If the required documents are not yet available, although the social benefit or the RF mark has already been applied for, a precautionary exemption application must be made. In these cases, the documents must be submitted upon receipt.

Natural persons (private persons in the legal sense) can be exempted if they belong to at least one of the following groups of persons:

1. recipients of assistance for subsistence according to Chapter III of Book Twelfth of the Social Security Code (social assistance) or according to §§ 27 a or 27 d of the Federal Pensions Act,
2. Recipients of basic provision in old age and in case of reduced earning capacity (Chapter Four of Book Twelfth of the Social Code),
3. Recipients of social security benefit or unemployment benefit II including benefits under § 22
4. Recipients of benefits under the Asylum Seekers Benefits Act,
5. recipients not living with their parents of training assistance under the Federal Training Assistance Act, vocational training allowance under §§ 99, 100 No. 3 of Book 3 of the Social Code or under Chapter 4, Section 5 of Book 3 of the Social Code or training allowance under §§ 104 ff. of Book 3 of the Social Code
6. persons entitled to special care within the meaning of § 27 e of the Federal Pensions Act,
7. Recipients of assistance for nursing care according to Chapter Seven of Book Twelfth of the Social Code or of assistance for nursing care as a benefit of the war victim welfare service according to the Federal Benefits Act or of nursing allowance according to the regulations of state law and
8. Recipients of care allowances under Section 267(1) of the Equalisation of Burdens Act or persons who are granted an allowance on account of need for care under Section 267(2), first sentence, no. 2(c) of the Equalisation of Burdens Act,
9. persons of full age who, within the framework of the granting of benefits in accordance with Book Eight of the Social Security Code, live in an inpatient facility in accordance with § 45 of Book Eight of the Social Security Code, and
10. deaf-blind people and recipients of aid for the blind according to § 72 of the twelfth book of the Social Security Code.

The radio contribution is reduced to one third for the following persons upon application:

• blind or not only temporarily substantially visually impaired persons with a degree of disability of at least 60 per cent solely because of the visual impairment,
• hearing-impaired people who are deaf or who are unable to communicate adequately by hearing, even with hearing aids, and
• disabled persons whose degree of disability is not only temporarily at least 80 per cent and who are permanently unable to participate in public events because of their suffering.

The exemption or reduction granted to the applicant extends within the home to

• the spouse,
• the registered civil partner,
• the owners of the flats who have been considered for the granting of a social benefit as part of an outreach association within the meaning of § 19 of Book 12 of the Social Security Code

In cases of particular hardship, the obligation to pay contributions shall be waived upon separate application. A case of hardship exists in particular if a social benefit (see Nos. 1-10) has been refused in an official decision issued by the competent authority on the grounds that the income exceeds the respective income threshold by less than the amount of the monthly broadcasting contribution.

In order to be exempted, the broadcaster must submit an application for exemption from the obligation to pay broadcasting fees. This is

• at the Social Services Department,
• at the Jobcenter Bremerhaven
• in the Office for Supply and Integration - Bremerhaven branch office -
• in the Citizens' Offices North and Centre

or is available for download in the online offer. The completed and signed application must be sent to "ARD ZDF Deutschlandradio" together with the necessary documents. The decision on the application will be made in writing from there.

In addition to submitting the original or a certified copy of the certificate of benefits, it is also possible to submit a separate original confirmation from the service provider containing only the data required for exemption from fees as an alternative to the certificate of receipt of the above-mentioned social benefits.