Federal Minister for Building, Verena Hubertz (SPD), plans to meet her department’s mandated savings goals by implementing cuts to the housing benefit program (Wohngeld). A spokesperson for the Ministry of Building confirmed this to the newspaper, stating that the department “will meet our savings requirements through a restructuring of the housing benefit”.
The Ministry of Building faces a mandated saving target of one billion euros within the 2027 federal budget. Consequently, the spokesperson confirmed that reductions in social housing construction or in subsidy programs for new and existing buildings are not viable options.
The housing benefit is described as a subsidy provided to low-income households. According to the Ministry, approximately 1.2 million households in Germany currently receive this benefit, for which 2.4 billion euros are allocated for the current year.
While restructuring the program, the ministerial spokesperson assured the public that care will be taken to ensure the benefit is designed in a “fair and targeted” manner. However, the Ministry declined to provide any concrete figures regarding the potential scope of these savings, noting that it was “currently too early to make concrete statements about the amount of savings in the housing benefit. That would not be serious in the current situation”.
