Housing benefit
Housing benefit reform 2023 / Housing Benefit Plus Act
Housing benefit is a subsidy to ensure adequate and family-friendly housing. This social benefit is only granted on application. If the legal requirements are met, there is a legal entitlement to housing benefit. Housing benefit is paid to tenants of residential property (rent subsidy) and owners of owner-occupied residential property (encumbrance subsidy).
The amount of housing benefit depends largely on
- how high your income is,
- how high your rent or charges are and
- how many other people live in your household and how high their income is.
The Federal Council approved the Housing Benefit Plus Act on 25 November 2022 and it came into force on 1 January 2023.
For households that were already receiving housing benefit on the effective date, the new Housing Benefit Plus Act will lead to a noticeable increase in the previous housing benefit amount.
The Housing Benefit Plus Act will also make significantly more households eligible for housing benefit for the first time. With the federal government forecasting a more than three-fold increase in housing benefit households, up to 11,200 households could ultimately receive housing benefit from 2023.
If you assume that you will be entitled to housing benefit for the first time as a result of the housing benefit reform, please submit an application for housing benefit in good time. If you are entitled to housing benefit, it will be granted from the month in which the application is received by the housing benefit authority.
Forms and information in the service portal of the City of Chemnitz:
Further information on housing benefit
You can find all information on the subject of housing benefit and an explanatory video on housing benefit plus on the website of the Federal Ministry of Housing, Urban Development and Building.
FAQs can be found on the homepage of the Free State of Saxony under Building and Housing in Saxony.
Online housing benefit calculator
The online housing benefit calculator of the Federal Ministry of Housing, Urban Development and Building can provide guidance to help you decide whether to apply. For example, you can use the following link to check your potential housing benefit entitlement without obligation.
All submissions are anonymous. It is important to note that an application must be submitted to the housing benefit authority in order to obtain legally binding information about your housing benefit entitlement. The calculation with the housing benefit calculator does not replace this.