Service Finder
Housing allowance initial application
Service Description
You can receive housing benefit as a tenant (so-called rent subsidy) or as an owner for owner-occupied housing (so-called burden subsidy).
Whether and how much housing benefit you receive depends on how high your income is and how high your rent or your monthly burden is in the case of home ownership.
How many people live in your household also plays a role.
The amount of the housing allowance can vary from region to region.
The rent or burden is only eligible up to certain maximum amounts.
The maximum amounts depend on the local rent level, the so-called rent levels.
If your financial situation or living circumstances have worsened during the grant period, you can apply for an increase in housing allowance at any time.
You are obliged to notify the housing allowance authority immediately of any changes.
This also applies to changes that may lead to a reduction in the housing allowance.
Process flow
To receive housing allowance, you must submit an application to the housing allowance authority responsible for your area.
After checking your income and costs, you will then receive a decision from there about the approval and the amount of the payment or about a refusal.
Who should I contact?
Contact the housing subsidy office responsible for you.
Competent authority
The following authorities are responsible for granting and reclaiming housing allowances in their respective spheres of competence
- The counties and independent cities,
- the municipalities of Gotha, Ilmenau, Rudolstadt and Saalfeld.
Requirements
Whether you are entitled to a housing allowance, and if so, how much, depends primarily on the following factors:
1. on the number of household members to be considered,
2. the amount of your total income,
3. the amount of your rent or charges to be taken into account.
Re 1: Number of household members to be taken into account
In addition to you as a person entitled to a housing allowance, the persons who live with you in an apartment count as household members. This dwelling must be the center of living relations for each of these persons. All household members are taken into account if they are not excluded from the housing allowance. You are excluded from housing benefit if you receive transfer payments (other social benefits) in which housing costs are already included, for example:
- Citizen's allowance or
- Basic income support in old age and in case of reduced earning capacity.
Students and trainees who live alone and who are entitled to Federal Training Assistance (BAföG) or Vocational Training Assistance (BAB) are also not entitled to housing allowance.
This also applies if BAföG or BAB was rejected because the parents' income was too high.
Re 2: Amount of the total income
The total income results from the sum of the annual incomes of all household members to be considered.
Certain allowances and deductions for maintenance payments can be deducted from this.
Ad 3: Amount of rent or burden to be taken into account.
Rent is the agreed remuneration for the use of the living space on the basis of a rental agreement.
Burden in the case of owners is the expenditure for debt service and management of the property.
The basis for calculating the housing allowance is the gross cold rent. Rent does not include, for example, heating costs and costs for hot water. Nor does it include payments for the use of a garage or a parking space for motor vehicles, or payments for general support services such as arranging nursing or care services, domestic care services or emergency call services.
For details, please contact your responsible housing allowance office.
Which documents are required?
In addition to the application form to be completed, you must also submit other documents as evidence.
Other documents may include, in particular:
Current proof of your rent or encumbrance:
- Rental agreement,
- current statement of operating costs, if applicable,
- in the case of owners: Evidence of existing loans taken out for the purchase, construction or modernization of the home or condominium,
- for owners: Current property tax assessment notice.
Current proof of income for all household members:
- Wage and salary statements for the last few months,
- current pension statement,
- Current notice of receipt of social benefits (e.g. citizen's allowance, parental allowance, advance maintenance payments, sick pay),
- Proof of alimony payments,
- Proof of interest and other investment income (e.g. in the case of savings accounts, fixed-term deposits, daily allowances, building society savings contracts, funds); in particular tax certificates.
Other evidence (if available):
- Disability certificate and notification of long-term care insurance benefits.
Please refer to the application form or the information provided by your competent housing allowance authority to find out which documents you need to submit in your specific case.
What are the fees?
There are no fees to pay.
What deadlines do I have to pay attention to?
If you are eligible, you will receive housing allowance from the 1st of the month in which you submitted the application.
As a rule, housing allowance is granted for the first time for a period of 12 months.
You should submit an application for continued housing allowance 2 months before the end of the allowance period.
Legal basis
Applications / forms
After you have applied for a housing allowance, you will receive a decision from your housing allowance authority. If you feel that your rights have been infringed by this decision, you can lodge an appeal against it.
If you intend to appeal against the decision of the housing allowance authority, you must do so within one month of notification of the decision.
The same applies if you wish to appeal against the notice of appeal.
You will find all the necessary information in the appeal instructions at the end of the notice.
Appeal
You can obtain the necessary forms from the Form Service Thuringia under the heading Housing Allowance (see also the link below):
Alternatively, you can also obtain the forms from your housing allowance authority.
The federal, state, and local governments are currently working on making it possible for you to complete all essential administrative procedures digitally.
Please check the website of your local housing allowance office, for example, to see whether they already offer electronic applications for your housing allowance.
What else should I know?
If your financial situation or your living circumstances have improved or changed, this may also result in a reduction of the housing allowance. You are obliged to notify the housing allowance authority immediately of any changes that may result in a reduction of the housing allowance.
In order to prevent or detect the unlawful claiming of housing allowance, the housing allowance authority may regularly check the household members by means of a so-called data comparison (for example, with the registration authorities or the German pension insurance).
Further information is provided by the Federal Ministry responsible for housing allowances (see also the links below):
Author
The text was automatically translated based on the German content.
Technically approved by
Thuringian Ministry for Infrastructure and Agriculture
Professionally released on
31.03.2023
Source: Zuständigkeitsfinder Thüringen (Linie6PLus)
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