“Wohngeld plus”: Bad Tölz District Office agrees on massively increased waiting times for applicants

Created: 11/29/2022, 09:00

By: Andreas Steppan

Due to the current housing benefit reform, significantly more applications will have to be processed in the future.

© Jens Kalaene

As a result of the reform, 1,500 households in Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen could be entitled to housing benefit from 2023.

This is a major challenge for the District Attorney's Office.

Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen

– The federal government speaks of the “biggest housing benefit reform in the history of Germany”.

But no sooner had the Federal Council approved the “Wohngeld plus” on Friday than the voices that see massive problems in implementation increased.

The Bavarian state government also speaks of a "bureaucracy monster".

Putting the new law into practice on January 1, 2023 is "utopian".

Marlis Peischer, spokeswoman for the Tölz district office, also speaks of a “challenge” when asked.

The district office estimates that 1,300 to 1,500 households in Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen will be entitled to housing benefit

The housing allowance is intended for people who, in principle, can earn their living themselves, but who earn so little that they are overwhelmed with their housing costs.

The new “Wohngeld plus” is now intended to significantly increase the number of those entitled to benefits – nationwide there are around 1.4 million beneficiaries instead of the previous 600,000.

On the other hand, the average housing allowance paid out will increase from 180 to 370 euros per month – also because the “housing allowance plus” will in future include a permanent heating cost component.

The housing benefit office in the district office is responsible for implementation in the district.

According to the spokeswoman for the authorities, Peischer, it is assumed that the housing benefit reform will mean that 1,300 to 1,500 households will be entitled to receive housing benefit from January next year.

According to Peischer, as of September 30, 2022, there were 615 "pure housing benefit households".

"Great challenge for the housing benefit authorities"

She makes it clear: "Increasing the group of recipients will mean a major challenge for the housing benefit authorities." For the coming year, two additional positions have initially been requested in the housing benefit office.

The district committee of the district council approved this in its most recent meeting, but the entire district council still has to approve the budget including the position plan.

Peischer points out that "it cannot yet be estimated whether the two additional positions will be sufficient".

In any case, it should be noted "that the positions still have to be filled and then the necessary personnel have to be trained".

"Processing time for applications will increase massively"

In order to receive housing benefit, anyone who can finance their livelihood but has difficulties paying the rent can apply for the additional support benefit.

"The district office must then carry out a detailed examination as the responsible body," said the spokeswoman.

However, it is already "foreseeable that this will lead to considerable additional workloads for the current employees and that this will massively increase the processing time for incoming applications".

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Incidentally, there is already a lot of extra work there.

Because, as Peischer confirmed to our newspaper, there is currently an increased number of initial applications for housing benefit.

The authority registers 15 to 20 applications every week.

"The number will increase by the end of the year," predicts Peischer.

One could only speculate as to the reasons for this.

However, the increase could well be due to the newly added "Heating cost subsidy II".

The number of housing benefit applications in the district office is already increasing

Background: In addition to the "Heating cost subsidy I" already paid out - amounting to at least 270 euros for households with housing benefit - the federal government had decided on a second heating cost subsidy to provide around two million people, including 1.5 million recipients of housing benefit, with quick help for the heating period from September to December afford to.

415 euros are planned for one person, 540 euros for two people and 100 euros for each additional person.

It is possible that many people are currently trying to be included in the group of housing benefit recipients in order to still receive this subsidy.

You can find more current news from the region around Bad Tölz at Merkur.de/Bad Tölz.