Federal Building Minister Klara Geywitz (SPD) expects, in her own words, delays in the processing of applications when the housing benefit reform comes into force at the beginning of next year. “It can be assumed that the processing time will increase more. If you submit an application by January 1st, it will be decided in March,” Geywitz told the “Bild” newspaper. The authorities are “standing here in front of a huge mountain of files”.
The minister said there was a lot more work to be done for the employees in the housing benefit offices. Because of the additional work involved as a result of the reform decided by the federal government, the authorities are expecting a flood of applications that could lead to overburdening employees.
Last week, the Bundestag passed a comprehensive reform of housing benefits. As a result, the social benefit will benefit more people from next year and will also be higher: instead of around 600,000 households recently, around two million households will be entitled to housing benefit in the future. The average amount is expected to increase significantly from around 180 euros to around 370 euros per month.
The housing benefit will be restructured at the same time. In the future there will be a permanent heating cost component that will be included in the calculation of the housing benefit as a supplement to the rent or burden to be taken into account. A climate component takes into account rent increases due to energy measures. In addition, the general formula for calculating housing benefit has been changed.
