As a result of the new housing benefit law, the number of recipients in Hamburg has more than doubled. Federal Construction Minister Klara Geywitz and Urban Development Senator Karen Pein (both SPD) announced on Tuesday that the state subsidy had been paid to more than 24,300 households in Hamburg as of January 1st – a year after the Housing Benefit Plus regulation came into force.
Current news: headlines
Housing construction study: There is a shortage of more than 900,000 social housing units in Germany
Real Estate: Construction Minister admits that housing construction targets have been missed
Housing construction: Why the construction crisis could also be beneficial
More headlines
So far, more than 31,000 new housing benefit applications have been received. Around 600 more are added every week. According to the information, average payments in Hamburg rose from 218 euros in 2022 to currently around 400 euros.
The new Housing Benefit Plus is intended to provide relief to people with low incomes in the face of rising prices. “The housing benefit is targeted support for people who go to work or have a low pension,” said Geywitz. In addition to “a lot of single parents,” many pensioners would also benefit from it. But house or apartment owners with low incomes who would otherwise not be able to keep the property they use themselves could also have a claim checked.
Pein expects the number of housing benefit recipients in Hamburg to triple by the summer. “There has been a relatively constant influx of new applications,” she said. “Around a third of the applications came to us online. We hope we can expand this further.” Every citizen can still submit the application personally. “So far that has been around three percent,” she said.
Newsletter
© ZON
Elbvertiefung – The daily newsletter for Hamburg
By registering you take the Data protection
to note.
Thank you! We have sent you an email.
Check your mailbox and confirm your newsletter subscription.
By setting up the central housing benefit office, Hamburg had already adapted to the new regulations well before the housing benefit law came into force. “Hamburg is one of the federal states where it was done best, most quickly and with a high level of digitalization,” said Geywitz.
The opposition among citizens is critical of the positive balance of the federal government and the city. The numbers make it clear that even after a ten-year housing offensive, there is far too little affordable housing in Hamburg, said the CDU’s urban development expert, Anke Frieling. “It can’t be a success if more and more Hamburg residents are dependent on state support.”
The Left, however, criticized the fact that, according to the Senate’s calculations, around 40,000 people in the city were entitled to housing benefit. Nevertheless, after twelve months only a good 24,000 applications had been approved, said social policy spokeswoman Olga Fritzsche. “In addition, the approval rate is currently 70 percent. That means the other way around: almost a third of applications are rejected.”
The AfD sees the high number of housing benefit recipients as evidence that the red-green Senate is systematically impoverishing Hamburg’s citizens. “Excessive ideologically driven energy building regulations, a lot of bureaucracy in the building permit process and skyrocketing energy prices ensure that rents are rising and housing construction has come to a standstill,” said deputy parliamentary group leader Alexander Wolf.
“It was right and deserving to massively increase the number of housing benefit recipients in Hamburg through a broad information campaign,” said FDP MP Anna von Treuenfels-Frowein. “But it would be even more worthwhile if the Senator for Construction would finally create better conditions for the severely weakening housing construction in Hamburg.”
© dpa-infocom, dpa:240116-99-635677/2
As a result of the new housing benefit law, the number of recipients in Hamburg has more than doubled. Federal Construction Minister Klara Geywitz and Urban Development Senator Karen Pein (both SPD) announced on Tuesday that the state subsidy had been paid to more than 24,300 households in Hamburg as of January 1st – a year after the Housing Benefit Plus regulation came into force.
So far, more than 31,000 new housing benefit applications have been received. Around 600 more are added every week. According to the information, average payments in Hamburg rose from 218 euros in 2022 to currently around 400 euros.
2024-01-16 17:06:59
#Housing #policy #Number #housing #benefit #recipients #Hamburg #doubled
