The Education and Participation Package (BuT) is an important component of social support for families in need in Germany. It ensures that children from low-income households also have access to educational and leisure activities and can take part in communal school meals. However, for school authorities, who often act as an interface between families, schools and the authorities responsible for funding, various challenges arise in practice when it comes to accounting for school meals in connection with the BuT package. In this blog post, we highlight the biggest stumbling blocks and provide suggestions on how school boards can make the processes more efficient.
Different responsibilities and bureaucratic effort
The funds from the education and participation package are provided by social service providers such as job centers or social welfare offices, while the billing and administration of school meals is often carried out by the school authorities or the caterers commissioned by them. This shared responsibility brings with it a number of challenges.
- Administration of applications for support: Parents must submit applications for support from the BuT package for their children. School authorities must ensure that these applications are submitted and approved correctly and on time so that costs can be covered. Delays in processing applications mean that families initially have to bear the costs of school meals themselves.
- Coordination between different authorities: Coordination between the school and social service providers is often not optimal. There is no central point of contact for school authorities to clarify eligibility for funding and to settle benefits.
- Individual case processing: Each application for school meal funding must be checked and processed individually. Incomplete or incorrect applications result in queries that further delay the processing process and mean additional work for the school authorities.
Digital and organizational deficits
Although more and more administrative processes have now been digitized, the billing of school meals in connection with funds from the BuT package is still heavily paper-based in many municipalities. Parents have to submit applications and certificates in writing, which are then processed manually. This slows down the process considerably and ties up manpower.
To make matters worse, the parties involved use different software solutions for billing, which are not necessarily compatible. This means that data supplied by the social benefit providers has to be entered manually into the school authorities’ systems. This not only costs time, but also increases the likelihood of errors.
Complex billing processes and inconsistent regulations
Due to the large number of stakeholders involved and the individual requirements of those entitled to support, the billing of school meals with funds from the education and participation package is very complex.
Each pupil has different eligibility requirements, depending on the family’s social and financial situation. In addition, although the majority of the costs are covered, parents have to pay their own share. Some school authorities cover this share, others do not.
If pupils do not attend school meals due to illness or for other reasons, the billing must be adjusted. This requires precise documentation of attendance and further increases the complexity of the process.
Another hurdle in the billing of school meals in connection with the BuT package is the lack of standardization. The various federal states, local authorities and even individual schools often have different regulations and procedures regarding billing. In addition, there are other funding programs in some regions that make the billing process even more complex.
A great deal of specialist knowledge and precise knowledge of the applicable rules are absolutely essential for billing.
Solutions for school authorities
In order to overcome the challenges associated with BuT, there are a number of approaches that school boards and authorities should pursue:
- Simplify the application process
A simplified application process, for example through online forms and automatic checking systems, could reduce the workload for parents and authorities and shorten processing times. - Digitization of processes
End-to-end digitization of application and billing processes can significantly reduce the workload and lower the error rate. - Better information for those involved
Both parents and employees of schools and school authorities should be better informed about the procedures and requirements of the BuT package in order to ensure a smoother process. - Standardization and unification
Nationwide uniform standards and regulations for the billing of school meals as part of the BuT package could eliminate many of the current problems. This applies both to the legal framework and to technical solutions such as billing software.
In summary, it can be said that the billing of school meals in connection with the education and participation package is a complex challenge for school authorities, which is made more difficult by bureaucratic hurdles and a lack of standardization. However, through digitalization, improved communication and standardization of the requirements, school boards can reduce the effort and ensure that all pupils have access to healthy school meals, regardless of their families’ financial situation.
Do you not have enough employees to carry out the billing of lunch meals yourself or do you lack special knowledge of subsidy programs? We would be happy to inform you about the advantages of ParentPay’s managed service, which takes the work off your hands. Talk to us.
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