Job agency fixed: missing 1 October registration won't cost you
The Federal Employment Agency's online services are working again. After a technical fault that lasted several days, the agency in Nuremberg said its online services have been reachable again since Saturday evening, 3 October. A hacker attack has been ruled out, and its IT staff are still monitoring the system closely.
The outage hit the online unemployment registration and other online services right around 1 October. That date matters: anyone whose job ended on 30 September normally has to register as unemployed on their first day without work, otherwise they can lose unemployment benefit for the days in between. Many people could not do this online last week, and other notifications to the agency could not be sent through its website either.
The agency has promised that nobody will be penalised for this. "We will ensure that there are no disadvantages for customers," it said, referring to people who could not submit notifications online because of the outage. It also said it will tell customers early this week exactly how the arrangement will work and which period it covers.
If you could not register as unemployed or send another notification during the outage, do it now, either online or in person at your local employment agency. Keep any screenshots, error messages or notes showing when you tried, so you can prove the delay was not your fault. Watch for the agency's announcement early this week, and if a decision still counts the missed days against you, ask your employment agency to correct it. If you are unsure what applies to you, ask at your local office before any deadline in your letters runs out.