More than 13,000 citizen's allowance households in Saxony have to pay extra for rent and heating costs because their home is not considered adequate. Last year, this affected around one in ten households with citizen's allowance, according to the federal government's response to a question from the Die Linke group in the Bundestag. On average, these households had to pay around 83 euros out of their own pockets. Households with children had to pay a particularly high amount - an average of just under 102 euros per month.
Actually, housing costs, i.e. rent and heating costs, should be covered by the state for recipients of citizen's allowance. However, this only applies if they are deemed reasonable. To this end, the rent and apartment size must not exceed certain regionally defined reference values. Anyone living in an apartment that is too large will be asked to move or sublet a room, for example. According to the Ministry of Labor, almost 320,000 Bürgergeld households nationwide were not reimbursed for their full housing costs and had to pay an average of €103 per month themselves.
