The housing benefit reform is intended to relieve significantly more households in Germany. Actually, it should start at the turn of the year. But patience is required: there is not enough staff to implement it.
According to the Federal Building Minister Klara Geywitz, anyone who tries to get the subsidy as part of the housing benefit reform at the turn of the year will have to wait several weeks for the payment to be made. “It can be assumed that the processing time will increase more,” said the SPD politician of the “Bild” (Thursday). “If you submit an application by January 1st, it will be approved in March.” The housing benefit for January and February will then be paid out retrospectively. Geywitz therefore spoke of “additional volume” that would come to the housing benefit offices.
The housing benefit is a state subsidy for rent for households that do not receive social benefits but still have little money. From January, more households in Germany should be relieved. The housing benefit is also to be increased by an average of 190 euros per month, as the Bundestag decided last week. According to the government, two million households could benefit from the new housing benefit, 1.4 million more than before. The Federal Council still has to approve the reform at the end of November.
The staff is missing
North Rhine-Westphalia’s Building Minister Ina Scharrenbach (CDU) told the news portal “The Pioneer” that the housing benefit reform could not be implemented in the local administrations in the short time available. “There is a massive lack of staff to implement this reform – by the way, the municipalities pay for it themselves.” The IT must be reprogrammed so that the applications can be processed at all, the Scharrenbach portal quoted in its newsletter “Capital – The Briefing”. “It takes between four to six months in the federal states.”
The Federal Association of Consumer Advice Centers had warned of overloading the offices at the beginning of the new year when implementing the housing benefit reform. “At the beginning of the year there is a risk of official chaos, so that people would have to wait weeks or even months for processing and payment,” said association leader Ramona Pop recently to “Welt”.
Source: Stern
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