The Bundestag held its first reading in the night to Friday of the federal government’s draft law “on the simplification and further development of the Housing Benefit Act”. According to the Bundestag, after a 20-minute debate the bills were referred to the committees for further deliberation. The lead committee is the Committee for Housing, Urban Development, Building and Local Authorities. According to the draft law, the planned savings amount to 1.156 billion euros in 2027 and 1.486 billion euros in 2028. Affected are the roughly 1.3 million households that received housing benefit in 2025.
Building Minister Verena Hubertz (SPD) defended the cuts in the debate. The federal budget was under “massive consolidation pressure” in the short term, she said, according to Deutschlandfunk. Housing benefit was the “only item where savings can be made”, and the cut was “the only viable way”. The opposition parties sharply criticised the late hour of the debate and the plans themselves. Green MP Mayra Vriesema said, according to ZDFheute, that 20 minutes at half past midnight should mean that few people notice “what you are actually planning here”. Left Party MP Sahra Mirow warned of rent arrears, evictions and loss of housing.
What the reform specifically provides for
The reform provides for changing the housing benefit formula, suspending the adjustment to inflation and rent price trends, and halving the so-called heating cost component. According to the Federal Ministry for Housing, this could mean that about a third of previous housing benefit households would no longer be entitled. The remaining households are to receive less support. According to taz, it is not possible to say by how much less in general terms, because housing benefit is calculated individually according to income, rent level and place of residence. Housing benefit notices already issued are to remain valid until they expire, reports Bayerischer Rundfunk.
In its opinion, the Bundesrat welcomes the intended simplifications but criticises the cuts. “However, the suspension of the housing benefit adjustment and the reduction of the heating cost component weaken the relief effect for low-income households,” the opinion states. There is a risk that more households will have to rely on basic income support. In its counter-statement, the federal government explained that in shaping the savings it had already been taken into account “that social hardship is kept as low as possible”.
Pensioners, single parents and children particularly affected
An analysis by the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB), which was made available to the Berliner Morgenpost in advance, shows who is particularly affected by the cuts: pensioners live in 51 per cent of housing benefit households, children in 39 per cent. Around 130,000 recipients are single parents. According to the DGB, about 1.1 million children are affected, and about 400,000 households would lose their entitlement completely. The DGB also warns that families with children could lose the child supplement as well through the loss of housing benefit, since it is only paid if no basic income support is received. According to BR, the Paritätischer Wohlfahrtsverband Bayern criticises: “The ministry shifts the problem but does not solve it. It saves on housing benefit and pushes the costs into basic income support.”
In Bavaria, just under 120,000 households received housing benefit last year, on average almost 300 euros per month. The Bavarian Association of Cities expects that about a third of households in the Free State could also fall out of the support scheme. More precise figures are not yet available. Augsburg estimates that around 20 per cent of the just under 5,500 households will lose their entitlement. Erlangen expects that of 1,283 households only 73 would be affected. Munich even fears additional costs from the shift into basic income support.
The reform will now be further deliberated in the Bundestag committees. Changes are possible. It is also to be a topic in the upcoming budget deliberations. According to taz, Hubertz said she supported intensive deliberation. Whether the cuts will come in the planned form is therefore still open.
