Transitional allowances
Transitional allowances are intended to give Members security while they make the transition back to professional life. Their purpose is to enable Members to return to their original jobs or take up new occupations after they leave the German Bundestag. Transitional allowances therefore help to ensure Members’ independence.
On the whole, anyone who is elected to the German Bundestag gives up for an uncertain period of time the job that he or she has done until this point. Typically, Members serve in Parliament at a time of life when others are promoting their own professional careers, building up and expanding their own businesses or making a name for their legal firms and medical practices.
A Member of the German Bundestag gives this up without knowing whether he or she will ever be reelected. If not, the Member can only return to their previous position upon leaving the Bundestag. If a Member’s company no longer exists, they have no right to unemployment benefit. In many cases, Members who were previously self-employed find themselves having to start all over again from square one.
One month of transitional allowance is paid at the level of the current Members’ remuneration for each year a Member has spent in Parliament. This means that, after one electoral term in the Bundestag, a Member will receive a transitional allowance for four months. The longest it is possible to receive this allowance for is eighteen months. As of the second month after a Member leaves Parliament, all other income – including income from private sources – is set off against this transitional allowance.
