Overview
- In early September 2026 the federal draft to “simplify and develop” the Wohngeld law would end entitlement when a calculated monthly payment is under €15, a change the ministry says could remove roughly 400,000 households from the program.
- The proposal also pauses parts of the planned 2027 increase, halves the heating component in one proposal track, and alters the calculation formula to lower overall spending by about €2 billion a year split between federal and state budgets.
- Current legal rules that remain in force require local Wohngeld offices to count most income: capital income is exempt up to €100 per person per year while any capital above that is added to annual income and Minijob earnings are fully counted with no small‑amount exemption.
- Recipients must report significant income rises—defined in the law as an increase of more than 15% in monthly positive income—and authorities may check bank data and reclaim wrongly paid sums subject to trustworthiness and administrative law.
- The 2023 Wohngeld‑Plus expansion that added a monthly heating supplement (€110.40) and a €19.20 climate component raised the Miethöchstbeträge and expanded coverage to about 1.2 million households, a context critics cite when warning the new cuts would hit many pensioners and low‑income renters hardest.