Overview

• Official figures show 12.6 percent of recipients—about 334,000 households—received only partial warm rent reimbursement, leaving an average €116 to be paid from standard benefits
• More than 400 municipalities set their own adequacy limits, creating steep regional disparities that range from €345 in Leipzig to €890 in Munich for a 50 m² one-person flat
• A 12-month transitional grace period delayed enforcement of local rent caps but its expiry has led to widespread reimbursement cuts for early claimants
• Economist Holger Schäfer warned the system could finance excessive rents, and Chancellor Friedrich Merz has proposed capping housing subsidies under Bürgergeld
• Left-wing MPs led by Cansın Köktürk denounce the rent gap as a scandal and insist that actual housing costs must be fully covered