Social expenditure of municipalities and associations of municipalities

Definition: In general, municipalities are responsible for providing services of general interest to citizens. For example, the municipalities maintain schools, day care centres and institutions for the elderly. In addition, many social services are provided by the municipalities. The social expenditure of municipalities and associations of municipalities includes in particular: —SGB II services, in particular accommodation and heating services, —Benefits for social assistance and basic old-age and disability benefits under SGB XII, —Services to victims of war or similar Beneficiaries, —Youth aid benefits and —Benefits under the Asylum Seeker Benefits Act. With the introduction of SGB II, expenditure on unemployment benefit II and benefits for integration into work have been part of the social expenditure of individual optional municipalities since 2005. According to SGB II, the Optionskommunen take over not only the municipal social tasks but also the tasks of the Federal Employment Agency for their area of competence. By the end of 2011, there were a total of 10 municipalities in NRW. Since 01.01.2012, 8 other North Rhine-Westphalian municipalities have been granted the status of an option municipality. Data source: IT.NRW, annual financial results (until 2008: Annual accounts statistics, from 2009 onwards: Financial accounting statistics), Quarterly cash statistics of municipalities and associations of municipalities