Status: 4 November 2026. A Bundestag committee on Wednesday heard experts on the planned cut to Wohngeld, Germany’s housing benefit (bill 21/8284). The verdict was almost unanimous: the tenants’ association, welfare groups, trade unions, the housing industry and even the German Association of Cities oppose it. Support came essentially only from the associations of rural districts and of towns and municipalities.
The bill contains three cuts: the regular uprating of Wohngeld is dropped, the heating-cost component is halved and the calculation formula is changed. According to the hearing, the federal government would save about 40 per cent of the Wohngeld budget, roughly €1bn. The start date is 1 January 2027.
“Disproportionate and unsocial”
Melanie Weber-Moritz of the German Tenants’ Association called the savings “disproportionate and unsocial” and asked why Wohngeld alone should carry such a burden. Joachim Krauß of the national federation for homelessness services warned: “Debts, rent arrears and new housing emergencies will increase.” DGB representative Martin Künkler called the plans “completely unacceptable, unsocial and heading in entirely the wrong direction”, and urged effective rent controls instead.
The criticism from local government itself stands out. Sebastian Klöppel of the Association of Cities described Wohngeld as a “particularly well-targeted instrument of social security”; the cut, he said, looks like an isolated saving that neither really simplifies administration nor fits the action plan against homelessness. Christian Lieberknecht of the housing federation GdW expects small real savings but more work for municipalities. Kai Warnecke of Haus & Grund backs the procedural simplification but not the benefit cut, and suggests saving on the planned federal building company instead. By contrast, Markus Mempel, speaking for the rural-district and the towns-and-municipalities associations, welcomed the focus on more needy households and considers it necessary to partly reverse the expansion made three and a half years ago.
How many households lose their entitlement?
That is the real dispute over numbers. The Building Ministry expects about a third of the roughly 1.3 million Wohngeld households to lose entitlement, around 430,000. The bill itself cites an IW microsimulation of about 381,000 households, of which some 143,000 move to basic income support (Grundsicherung). The Tenants’ Association expects up to 500,000 and says the ministry’s data are outdated. The Paritätische welfare federation puts it at 163,000 households that would depend on Grundsicherung.
The range largely reflects different assumptions and data; none of the figures is firm. What may matter more: households that drop out of Wohngeld and into Grundsicherung burden municipalities, which co-fund it. The Bundesrat already made that point in its 25 September opinion. Our assessment, with caution: the core of the cut will probably survive because of budget pressure, but compensation for the Länder and municipalities, or a softer heating-cost cut, is conceivable during the parliamentary process. The sources available to us give no voting date.
For those affected, nothing has changed: existing awards run to the end of their approval period, and anyone who applies to the Wohngeld office before the new year should, under the draft, benefit from the transitional rule. People already receiving Bürgergeld or Grundsicherung have no Wohngeld entitlement. Earlier coverage: Wohngeld cut in 2027: why to apply before the new year.
Sources: German Bundestag (hib), Bundesrat opinion (Drs. 474/1/26), ZDFheute, epd/evangelisch.de
