Anyone in Germany who receives housing benefit (Wohngeld), or is thinking of applying, should not wait until January. The government wants to cut Wohngeld from 1 January 2027, and a transitional rule decides who is still assessed under the old law. The bill has not been passed (as of 23 October 2026).
The cabinet approved the draft on 6 July, the Bundesrat criticised it in an opinion on 25 September, and the Bundestag held a first reading in the early hours of 9 October (paper 21/8284). Committees can still change it, and the Bundesrat must give final consent.
Three cuts are planned. First, the regular adjustment due every two years is suspended; the last one, on 1 January 2025, raised payments by about 15 per cent on average. Second, the heating-cost component is halved: for a single person it falls from €96 to €48 a month, while the €14.40 CO₂ element stays. Third, the formula changes so that payments shrink faster as income rises. There is also a floor: nothing is paid below €15 a month.
Who is hit, and who is protected
The Building Ministry expects around a third of the roughly 1.3 million Wohngeld households could lose their entitlement, most likely those just under the income limit who now get €50–60. The draft bill itself, citing a microsimulation by the German Economic Institute (IW), expects about 381,000 households to drop out of Wohngeld, around 143,000 of them moving to basic income support; finanz.de, citing IW model calculations, puts the number losing entitlement permanently at about 238,000. The figures differ because they are estimates, not outcomes.
Existing approvals stay unchanged until their period ends, typically twelve months. Under the draft (section 42e), if your application is still undecided at the end of 2026, or your approval runs past New Year, you keep the higher December amount if the new rules would give less. What counts is the day the application reaches the Wohngeld office, not the day of the decision. finanz.de gives an example: €260 instead of €190 a month, a €70 gap. Unprotected are follow-on applications whose new period starts on 1 January 2027, and first applications from January. A change in income, rent or household size can also end the protection.
The government argues that halving the heating component and pausing the adjustment affect all households in a comparable way, and says it needs to consolidate the federal budget, with relief of €1.156bn in 2027 and €1.486bn in 2028. The Bundesrat counters that more households may end up on basic income support, and that some savings would be eaten by knock-on costs for municipalities. Our reading: the dispute is less about the cut itself than about compensation for the states and municipalities, so a softer final version is possible but not certain.
Wohngeld is not paid to people already on Bürgergeld or basic income support, where housing costs are already covered. For refugees from Ukraine the question is whether earnings are enough to manage without a top-up from the Jobcenter. Whether a given residence permit qualifies is for the Wohngeld office to confirm.
How to act
Apply to the Wohngeld office where you live: in Munich the city’s Amt für Wohnen und Migration, in the surrounding area the Landratsamt. Many offices take online applications; start at service.bund.de. The application itself must arrive in 2026, while missing papers (landlord’s rent certificate, proof of income, proof of status) can follow. If your current approval period ends in 2026, file the renewal in time so the new period starts this year; if it only starts on 1 January 2027 or later, the transition rule in the draft does not apply. The official Wohngeld calculator is worth a try, though it still uses current law.
Bottom line: if you might qualify, an autumn application costs nothing, while waiting could cost several hundred euros a year. The final text of the law remains open.
Sources: Bundestag (hib 768/2026), Bundestag paper 21/8284, Haufe/dpa, finanz.de
