Flat-Rate Relocation Allowance under the German BUKG

Under § 10 BUKG the lump sum is 15 percent of the top salary step of grade A 13 for the entitled person and 10 percent for every further household member. In euros that is currently 1,074.62 and 716.41. The settlement office does the binding calculation.

Of everything an officially ordered relocation costs, exactly one item is a lump sum: the flat-rate allowance for miscellaneous relocation expenses. It covers what cannot be itemised — reassembly work, connections, tips, small change. Since 2019 the statute names no fixed euro amounts, only shares of the top salary step of pay grade A 13: 15 percent for the entitled person and 10 percent for every further person sharing the household before and after the move. Your own pay grade makes no difference, and a spouse counts exactly as much as a child. Anyone who had no dwelling the day before loading, or sets none up afterwards, receives a flat 3 percent instead. If a relocation with a granted commitment already took place within the last five years, a repeat-move supplement of 50 percent is added — though not where the earlier move followed recruitment, the vacating of a federal flat, health grounds or the arrival of a further child. Everything else is itemised: transport costs against the cheapest quote, travel costs, compensation for double rent, agency fees, catch-up tuition for children. None of that is calculated here. And the precondition for any of it is the written or electronic commitment to reimburse relocation costs. Without it there is no claim at all, and the settlement office decides the amount.