Enlarge image
Blocks of flats in Berlin
Photo: Lukas Schulze / dpa
When it comes to housing benefit financing, the federal government does not accommodate the states.
According to SPIEGEL information, the federal government is refusing to pay the costs of the housing allowance alone in the future.
The federal states had demanded this before the start of the Prime Ministers' Conference (MPK) with Chancellor Olaf Scholz in a draft resolution for the meeting.
The corresponding sentence read: "The federal government will assume all of the costs for the housing benefit in the future." It was removed from the document after a heated debate, as SPIEGEL learned from participants.
Instead, there is now a sentence that confirms the desire of the countries – also in view of Scholz’s no.
The cabinet had passed a housing benefit reform a few days ago.
It provides that from January more households in Germany should receive a state rent subsidy.
Up to 1.4 million more households are to be added to the current 600,000 households.
In addition, the housing allowance is to be increased by an average of 190 euros per month.
On average, housing benefit households should then receive around 370 euros a month.
The Bundestag still has to agree.
The reform is intended to relieve low-income households in the face of high inflation.
The housing benefit is a state subsidy for rent for households that do not receive social benefits but still have little money.
In the future, people who earn minimum wage or have a pension of a comparable amount should also be able to apply for housing benefit.
The traffic light coalition had undertaken this as part of the third relief package in view of the high energy prices.
The amount of housing benefit depends not only on income, but also on rent, household size and place of residence.
Before the start of the meeting, the countries had dampened expectations.
This is mainly due to the fact that there has not yet been a detailed proposal as to what the gas price brake should look like, for which the federal government wants to provide 200 billion euros.
Until this is clear, it is difficult to talk about any further measures, according to the countries.
"As long as we don't know exactly which parts of the population will be relieved to what extent, it's also relatively difficult for us to assess the question of where additional aid programs are needed, which areas are not covered," said the Prime Minister of Lower Saxony and MPK Chairman Stephan Weil.
More soon at SPIEGEL.de
cte/flo/ulz
