Blindness Benefit

The monthly blindness benefit is set by law. There are different amounts for

• blind people of full age
• blind minors
• blind people in inpatient facilities

The amount of blindness benefit is linked to the development of the pension value in the statutory pension insurance scheme. If the pension value increases, the amount of blindness benefit also increases accordingly.

Important: If you are entitled to blindness benefit and meet the requirements, you will be paid the difference to the allowance for the blind to which you are entitled in your federal state.

Example: Ms. Meier receives EUR 410 per month in your federal state and is also entitled to assistance for the blind. The blindness benefit to which Ms. Meier is generally entitled is 806.40 euros. However, the allowance for the blind serves the same purpose as the blindness benefit. The entitlement to blindness benefit is therefore reduced by the amount of the allowance. Ms. Meier can therefore receive a blindness benefit of 806.40 euros - 410 euros = 396.40 euros in addition to the state allowance for the blind.

Blindness benefit and assistance for the blind are intended to compensate for the disadvantages of blind people. Assistance for the blind is not used to cover living expenses and is therefore not counted as taxable income. However, other benefits can be offset against the assistance for the blind.

Offsetting care insurance benefits

If you receive care insurance benefits (e.g. care benefits in kind or care allowance), these benefits will be offset against the blindness benefit. However, the blindness benefit may only be reduced by a maximum of half.

• For people in need of care in care grade 2, 50% of the care allowance is deducted from the assistance for the blind.
• For people in need of care in care grades 3, 4 or 5, 40 percent of the care allowance for care grade 3 is taken into account.

Important: Priority benefits with the same purpose (such as the state allowance for the blind) are offset in full. In this case, the blindness benefit can also be reduced completely. This is the case if the other benefit is high enough. Then there is no longer any entitlement to blindness benefit.

Offsetting of state allowance for the blind

The state allowance for the blind and other benefits according to the respective federal state laws for the blind are offset 100% against the blindness benefit as an equivalent benefit. Is your state allowance for the blind lower than the blindness benefit and at the same time you do not exceed the income and assets limit? In this case, you are entitled to supplementary blindness benefit

Reduction and exclusion

You can also receive support from public funds for inpatient care. In this case, the blindness benefit is reduced by these publicly funded costs, but by a maximum of half.

In addition to blindness benefit, there is no simultaneous benefit from:

• Care assistance only due to blindness outside of inpatient facilities.
• Cash allowance (also known as "pocket money") within inpatient facilities.

Blindness benefit is a so-called subordinate benefit. You must therefore be able to prove that you are in need in order to be eligible:

• You do not exceed the income and asset limits that apply to social assistance.
  • The income limit is made up of
    • twice the standard needs level 1 and
    • the expenses for your accommodation, insofar as these are reasonable.
    • Under certain conditions, a family supplement can also be taken into account, which is at least 70 percent of standard needs level 1.
    • Example: Standard needs level 1 amounts to 502 euros for the year 2023. This means that you live in an appropriate apartment for a monthly rent of 360 euros without heating costs. A family allowance is not taken into account. Your income limit is then 1,364 euros (502 euros + 502 euros + 360 euros rent without heating costs).
• Income initially includes all income in cash or cash equivalents. However, there are exceptions: Certain types of income may not be taken into account, or only partially.
• For blind people, a maximum of 40 percent of the income that exceeds the income limit may also be taken into account.
• Protected assets include, for example, an appropriate motor vehicle, cash amounts of 10,000 euros for each adult or single person and other assets.
• You have already exhausted other priority social benefits and/or support from relatives. Benefits have priority if they are similar, i.e. have the same purpose as blindness benefit. These are, for example, the state allowance for the blind, the care allowance for the war-blind or the care allowance for the accident-blind. The decisive factor is that the benefits relate to blindness.

Important: If you are likely to need services in an inpatient facility for a longer period of time, a higher level of income is generally required.

The state allowance for the blind is paid to blind people in the respective federal states regardless of income and assets. As a rule, you are entitled to the benefit where you have your habitual residence, i.e. where you spend most of your time. Before applying for blindness benefit, you should therefore check your entitlement to the priority benefit, Landesblindengeld. The amount of the benefit and the gradations of the age groups vary from state to state. You can find a detailed overview of the federal states and their offers on the information page of the German Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired (Deutscher Blinden- und Sehbehindertenverband e.V.).

The amount of the state allowance for the blind is influenced by other benefits that you may already receive due to your need for care.

Depending on the respective regulations in the federal states, these benefits (e.g. care allowance) are offset against the state allowance for the blind if they are provided by statutory or private care insurance.

Yes, in some federal states, severely visually impaired, deaf-blind or hearing-visually impaired people are entitled to special benefits to compensate for their additional expenses:

• Visually impaired allowance (currently in Bavaria, Berlin, Hesse, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, North Rhine-Westphalia, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt)
• Deafblind allowance and benefits for hearing-impaired people (currently in Bavaria, Berlin, Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia, Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein and Thuringia)

The regulations and requirements can vary greatly from state to state. You can find more information on the information page of the German Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired (Deutscher Blinden- und Sehbehindertenverband e.V.).