Alright, let me tell you a little story. It is a true story that spans over a year and has only reached it's conclusion today. If you are not interested in reading anything about the inefficiency of the German bureaucracy, please feel free to skip to the next post. If, however, you think you would enjoy reading about how the German Agentur für Arbeit kept me busy for over a year, had me spend countless hours in waiting rooms in two different countries and laughed me in the face when all was accomplished, please read on.
It all started in April 2009 when my Italian contract expired. I was still in Italy at the time and the company I was working was not doing very well and could not afford to renew my contract. Besides, Olaf had just accepted a job in Germany and I was going to move to Berlin in a month anyway. I spent my last month in Germany mainly still working (as part of a private agreement I had made with my employer) and saying goodbye to friends.
I then moved to Berlin on June, 1st and got started immediately. I got registered as a resident, got myself a tax number to be able to work as a freelancer and hoped to find work soon. Unfortunately, it was summer time and schools were not hiring. It took me until September to get at least a little bit of work in. Once I realised I was not going to get any teaching work in the normal way, I decided to go to the German Federal Employment Agency (Bundesagentur für Arbeit) to see if they could help me. The Arbeitsamt (as it is colloquially known) both facilitates the search for new jobs as well as arranges unemployment benefits for those out of a job.
The Arbeitsamt is a lesson in patience. It is run by identical-looking brainless women in their mid-40s who have never heard of the concepts of efficiency or hurry. They sit at desks and are surrounded by piles of useless paper, which they slowly enter into a database everyone can access from home (and could therefore update themselves). After being given a 7-page form to fill out and waiting for about 90 minutes, I was called in to an office where a very eager lady actively started copying everything I had filled out into her database. After sitting in silence for an hour while waiting for her to finish, the lady told me I was now done for the day and needed to come back the week after. As I said before, I could have entered all those data myself from home.
The next week, after waiting for about an hour, I was called in to a different office where a nearly identical lady asked me whether I needed money. I told her I was more interested in finding a new job and hoped they could help with that. She told me the Arbeitsamt does not help people find jobs. She did however tell me she had told the computer to generate a password for me so I could use their database, which includes all the ads from newspaper and job sites (i.e. the kind of websites one can easily find oneself), which was the only thing they had done with all the information I had given them. She then gave me a piece paper with an appointment for two months later in case I still had not found a job.
Two months later - it was now August - , I still had not found any proper work with any language schools (apart from the odd private lesson here and there), I went back and told a third (almost identical) lady my story. She asked me if I need money - which is apparently the first thing the people at the Arbeitsamt expect you to ask about, whereas I had rather think positively and want them to help me get a job. She told me they still would not help me find a job but that it was perhaps time to start getting some unemployment benefits. I heartily agreed and she told me I needed a European form (E301) from the social security authorities in Italy stating how long I had works, how much I had paid in contributions etc. The lady then gave me another appointment for two months later, which I later canceled because I found work with two different language schools in September. By that time I had been officially unemployed for 4 months (May - August 2009).
Having some experience with the way things work in Italy, I knew getting a form from INPS was going to be a long shot but I decided to try and get it anyway. After all, it was something I was entitled to after working and paying social contributions for two years. I won't bore you with the specifics but will run you quickly through the process. It took me a couple of emails (none of which INPS ever responded to), a couple of phone calls (which they never answered), and 4 visits to INPS every single time I went back to Milan (which obviously does not happen every week). The first time they were closed, the second time they told me they would send it but never did, the third time they were closed and the fourth time they were apologetic about not having sent it but told me they had closed my file. I did, however, manage to get the lovely lady who helped me to give me her direct email address and after a couple of weeks the form finally arrived.
The whole procedure had taken up to a year and it was now October 2010. Confident that this situation would finally be resolved and proud of my own perseverance, I went back to the Arbeitsamt, where I was told they had never heard of me. The lady at the reception told me point blank - though with an apologetic smile - that random losses of information sometimes occurred in their system. I was given a new form to fill out to see if they could find my data again but nothing helped. A fourth identical lady told me to go back home and bring them all the printouts they had given me the year before. But I stayed positive, OK, so there was a glitch in the system. That happens, I guess...
So, I finally went back today with every single piece of paper any German government authority had ever given or sent me. In a daunting conclusion to the story, I was told the following things by a 5th lady who went by yet a different name but looked exactly like the other four:
1) The loss of all my data had not been a random incident. According to a certain German data protection law, the Arbeitsamt is only allowed to keep people's data for 10 months, after which they have to delete everything, regardless of whether they case is still open or closed. My jaw dropped in amazement.
2) I had brought them the wrong form. I needed form E303, not E301, and it was absolutely impossible that any of the other identical ladies had given me the wrong information. Besides, there was a mistake in the information on the form (the Italian lady had accidentally typed 2007 instead of 2009 as the year in which my Italian contract ended). It was quite clear what was meant by it but she could not possibly do anything with a form with mistakes on it. I was to get a different form and to get the information on this one changed. I was disappointed and annoyed that someone at the Arbeitsamt had apparently lied to me about which form I needed.
3) No matter what form I brought them, I would not be able to apply for unemployment benefits over a past period to be paid out to me anyway. Even though it was clear I did not have a job in the summer of 2009, none of the ladies I had met had thought of registering me as unemployed. And as I had not been registered as unemployed when I was unemployed, I could not be registered as having been unemployed in the past retroactively. In other words, all my efforts had been pointless. They must simply have forgotten to tell me that in 2009. So, on the one hand they had not been able to register me as unemployed because they had needed data from Italy, and on the other hand they could not register me as having been unemployed now that I finally had the information (albeit with mistakes and on the wrong form). She could not explain to me why I had been told to get that form if it had been clear from the beginning it would not have helped anyway.
Game over. I have spent hours waiting for my turn at the Arbeitsamt as well as precious time in Milan I could have spent with friends waiting at and fighting with INPS. The whole thing has frustrated me immensely and made bang my head against the wall more than once. And in the end it turns out it was all for nothing. I knew it was not going to be easy and that there was a large chance of my not getting any unemployment money, but, ironically enough, I always assumed the problem would be caused by the Italian bureaucracy. So much for German efficiency and reliability. There is a Dutch version of the proverb 'it's dogged does it' which I adhere to fervently and which loosely translates as 'he who perseveres will win'. I guess not this time.
So, what's the lesson I have learnt today? Red tape is a wonderful means of having people do all sorts of things to keep them from enjoying their lives. And if it is not enough, just lie or not give them all the information they need. I guess it serves me right for being so determined. Trying to get what you have a right to is never a good idea, now is it? Stupid me.
