Finding affordable living space is difficult or even impossible in the suburbs around Munich. It is even more difficult if you have to live on unemployment benefit II, because then clearly defined rent ceilings apply. A request from the left in the Bundestag has now shown that many people cannot cope with the budget made available and they have to pay extra – with the money with which they actually have to earn their daily living. This housing cost gap is particularly high in Ebersberg, as social law expert Harald Thomé pointed out in an analysis of the figures. It averages 234.84 euros, which is even more than in the state capital, where 213.13 euros have to be paid on top. Third in the negative ranking is Dachau, where the gap is 198.47 euros. In view of such numbers, the “alarm bells should ring” and remedial action should be taken, so Thomé’s demand.
The Ebersberg job center has already decided to look closely at the number and check the individual cases. Because, as managing director Benedikt Hoigt points out, by far not all benefit communities are affected. At the time of the survey in 2020, 113 benefit communities in the district of Ebersberg paid extra, i.e. 10.7 percent. Nationwide, however, 16.9 percent of the benefit communities were affected.
As Hoigt explains, if the rents are too high, the job center has to follow a clear procedure: In the first six months in which those concerned receive services from the job center, nothing happens at first, the rent is paid in full. Afterwards, however, the customers have to prove that they have tried to find a cheaper apartment or to reduce costs by subletting, for example, through receipts or correspondence with brokers, as Hoigt explains. If this does not happen – as is very often the case in practice – the rent will be reduced. “If no corresponding evidence is presented, the job centers are obliged to reduce the cost of accommodation,” emphasizes the head of the job center. The procedure is required by law and does not arise from “any arbitrary legal opinion of the Ebersberg job center”.
In any case, the six-month rule is currently suspended due to the corona pandemic – at least for those affected who are new to Hartz IV. The so-called social protection package, which has been in place since April 2020 and until the end of 2021, makes it possible for the job centers to assume the full rent for new applications. Thus, according to Hoigt, the 113 benefit communities affected by the rent reduction must have received benefits and paid too much rent before the start of the corona pandemic. Hoigt also points out that the calculation in individual cases is often complicated and does not involve actual reductions.
How difficult it is to find an apartment in the district when there is little money available is something the experts from the department for avoiding homelessness experience all the time. Families with children in particular who need larger apartments hardly ever find anything on the market, says Gerhard Großer, who advises and accompanies those seeking help there. The waiting lists for social housing are long, and the alternatives are usually only apartments in a precarious condition. The figures presented by the federal government show that families are particularly hard hit by the housing cost gap. Out of 366 benefit communities with children in the Ebersberg district, 59 paid more for their apartments than was taken over by the job center – an average of 265.30 euros more per month.
This is likely to be related to the budget that the district council grants recipients of basic security and unemployment benefit II for their housing costs. The rental price caps were last adjusted in summer 2019 and are staggered according to apartment size and place of residence. The residents of Vaterstetten and Poing can spend the most money on their apartments, for example 670 euros for a one-person household and 1100 euros for four people. In most southern and eastern municipalities, on the other hand, the limit for one person is 580 euros and for four people it is 910 euros. But rents in the district are rising extremely quickly and are increasingly approaching those of the state capital, especially in the S-Bahn communities. Regular recalculation is required by law.