Who can get Wohngeld in Berlin?

Households that pay their own rent and support themselves but struggle with the housing cost: low and middle earners, pensioners, one-earner families and single parents. It does not depend on citizenship, but you need a legal right to stay. People on Grundsicherungsgeld or Grundsicherung im Alter and most students with a BAföG claim are excluded.

How much rent counts for Wohngeld in Berlin?

Berlin is in rent level IV. The formula counts your Bruttokaltmiete, base rent plus service charges without heating, up to €530.20 for one person, €643.80 for two, €766.60 for three, €892.40 for four and €1,021.20 for five. It then adds a fixed heating relief, €110.40 for one person and €197.80 for four.

How is income counted for Wohngeld?

From gross income the office deducts the €1,230 employee allowance per earner and then 10% each if you pay income tax, health insurance and pension contributions, so a normal employee loses 30% before the formula starts. Single parents with a child under 18 get a further €1,320 a year off. Kindergeld is not counted.

What changes to Wohngeld in 2027?

The federal cabinet approved a draft law on 6 July 2026 that would halve the permanent heating component, cancel the increase due in January 2027 and change the formula from 1 January 2027. Parliament still has to pass it. Under the draft, Wohngeld approved before 2027 runs on until the end of its approval period, and an application filed in 2026 keeps its December 2026 amount if the new rules would pay less.

How long does a Wohngeld application take in Berlin?

In December 2025 the Berlin average was 13 weeks, from 8 weeks in Spandau to 21 in Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, according to the Senate's answer to a written question. Wohngeld still counts from the first of the month in which your application arrives, so the wait does not cost you money once it is in.

How do I apply for Wohngeld in Berlin?

Apply to the Wohnungsamt of your own district, online through the Berlin service portal, by post or in person. It is free. You need ID, your rental contract, proof of the last three months' rent and income proof for everyone in the household. Send the application even if a document is missing and deliver it later.

Wohngeld Berlin: What Your Household Would Get, and Why to Apply This Year

Yusuf Ucuz

Sep 18

6 min read

Most people I know in Berlin who could get Wohngeld have never applied. The reasons are always the same: the form looks long, the Wohnungsamt has a reputation, and somebody once told them it is only for people on benefits. Then the rent goes up again, the heating bill arrives, and the question comes back.

This autumn the question has a deadline attached. The federal government wants to cut Wohngeld from 1 January 2027, and the draft law protects households whose application is already in by the end of 2026. So the useful move is simple: find out now whether your household is inside the formula, and if it is, apply this year.

My advice: spend five minutes with the numbers before you decide Wohngeld is not for you. I checked the rules, the Berlin figures and the draft reform on 18 September 2026.

A row of Berlin Altbau apartment buildings in Charlottenburg, one with a pale blue decorated facade and green plants climbing the ground floor, cars parked in front

Schillerstraße in Charlottenburg. Wohngeld is paid on ordinary rented flats like these, not only on social housing.

Who Wohngeld in Berlin is actually for

Wohngeld is a rent subsidy for households that pay their own way but struggle with the rent. It is not Bürgergeld, which is now called Grundsicherungsgeld, and you cannot get both. It is also not the WBS: a WBS only opens the door to subsidised flats, while Wohngeld is money paid into your account every month for the flat you already live in.

The people who are usually inside the formula in Berlin:

Single people on low or middle wages, especially part-time workers and anyone whose rent is above about a third of their income.
Pensioners with a small state pension, who often assume the pension office would have told them.
Families with one main earner, where the formula is surprisingly generous.
Single parents, who get an extra income allowance of €1,320 a year.

It does not depend on citizenship. What matters is that you live in the flat, pay the rent and have a legal right to stay in Germany. Students with a BAföG claim are usually excluded, and so is anyone already on Grundsicherungsgeld or Grundsicherung im Alter.

How the Wohngeld formula counts your rent and your income

The amount comes from one formula in the Wohngeld law, fed with three numbers: how many people live in the household, how much rent counts, and how much income counts. The way each one is counted is where most people misjudge their chances.

Rent means Bruttokaltmiete: your base rent plus the service charges, but without heating and hot water. Berlin sits in rent level IV, which sets a cap on how much rent the formula will count:

1 person: €530.20 (the €511 cap plus a €19.20 climate component)
2 people: €643.80
3 people: €766.60
4 people: €892.40
5 people: €1,021.20

Rent above the cap earns nothing extra. On top of the counted rent, the formula adds a fixed heating relief, €110.40 for one person and €197.80 for four. You do not have to prove your heating costs for it.

Income is not your gross pay. The office starts from gross income, takes off the €1,230 employee allowance per earner, then deducts 10% each if you pay income tax, health insurance and pension contributions. For a normal employee that is 30% gone before the formula even starts. Kindergeld is not counted at all.

This is why a household can earn more than it expects and still qualify. A family of four with one earner on €3,400 gross and €950 rent still comes out at roughly €490 a month.

The long west facade of the residential tower at Helene-Weigel-Platz in Marzahn, rows of balconies with yellow panels and a few flags, filling the whole frame

Helene-Weigel-Platz in Marzahn, seen from S Springpfuhl. The same rent cap applies in every Berlin district, from Marzahn to Charlottenburg.

Wohngeld Berlin calculator: estimate yours before the form

The tool below runs the same formula with Berlin's numbers. Type in the people in your flat, your rent without heating and your gross pay. The map shows every mix of rent and pay for your household size, and the dot shows where you are. The darker the square, the more Wohngeld; the pale area on the right is where the claim runs out.

A few results I found worth knowing:

Single, €1,900 gross, €650 rent: about €160 a month. The same person on €2,300 is almost at zero.
Single, €1,600 gross, €550 rent: about €265.
Pensioner, €1,300 state pension, €600 rent: about €205, because only health insurance is deducted.
Couple, one earner on €2,800, €800 rent: about €105.
Family of four, one earner on €2,600, €950 rent: about €700.

Treat the figure as an estimate. The Wohnungsamt checks every document, and things the tool leaves out, such as maintenance you pay or a disability allowance, would raise your amount.

The 2027 change and why the date of your application matters

On 6 July 2026 the federal cabinet approved a draft law to reorganise Wohngeld from 1 January 2027. The draft halves the permanent heating component, cancels the increase that was due in January 2027 and changes the formula so that more of your income counts. The building minister said about a third of current Wohngeld households would drop out. The Bundestag and Bundesrat still have to pass it, and they can change it.

The part that matters for you is the transition rule in the draft:

Wohngeld approved before 1 January 2027 keeps running at the approved amount until the end of that approval period, usually 12 months.
An application filed in 2026 but decided in 2027 is calculated under the current rules up to December 2026. If the new rules would pay less from January, the December 2026 amount stays for the rest of the approval period.

Wohngeld is paid from the first day of the month in which your application arrives. An application that lands in November 2026 counts from 1 November, even if the office decides in February. That is the whole case for applying this autumn instead of waiting to see what parliament does.

Rathaus Neukölln with its tall brick tower at the end of Karl-Marx-Straße, a row of shops and apartment buildings on the right and cars in the street

Karl-Marx-Straße with Rathaus Neukölln at the end. In Berlin, Wohngeld is handled by the housing office of the district you live in.

How long the Berlin Wohnungsamt takes

In Berlin your application goes to the Wohnungsamt of your own district. The Senate's answer to a written question in the Abgeordnetenhaus gives the average processing time per district. In December 2025 Berlin as a whole took 13 weeks, and the gap between districts was wide:

Fastest: Spandau (8 weeks), Pankow and Tempelhof-Schöneberg (9), Mitte (10).
Middle: Treptow-Köpenick and Marzahn-Hellersdorf (11), Neukölln and Reinickendorf (13), Lichtenberg (14).
Slowest: Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf and Steglitz-Zehlendorf (17), Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg (21 weeks).

Berlin's offices received 114,210 applications in 2025, and 26,660 were still open at the end of the year. Pankow's own page said 9 weeks in mid-September 2026. You cannot choose your district, but you can choose when you start, and the waiting costs you nothing as long as the application is in.

The modern Rathaus Kreuzberg on Yorckstraße, a long grey office building with large windows and a big tree in front of the entrance

Rathaus Kreuzberg on Yorckstraße. Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg had the longest average wait in Berlin at the end of 2025.

Applying in Berlin without losing weeks

The application is free and you can file it online through the Berlin service portal, by post or at your district office. What slows most applications down is missing paperwork, so collect these first:

ID for everyone in the household and proof of your right to stay.
Your rental contract and proof of the rent paid for the last three months.
Income proof for everyone: payslips, pension notice, ALG I notice, maintenance advance.
The latest Nebenkosten statement if your service charges changed. My post on the Nebenkostenabrechnung explains how to read it.

If one document is missing, send the application anyway and deliver the rest later. The date the application arrives is the date that counts, and Pankow's own page asks for as many documents as possible up front, not for everything.

Two changes need a new look at your numbers. If a rent increase lifts your counted rent by more than 10%, you can apply for a higher amount mid-period. If your income rises by more than 15%, report it, because the office recalculates from the month it changed.

A long white apartment block with rows of balconies on Theodor-Brugsch-Straße in Buch, autumn bushes in orange and brown in front and cars parked along the street

Theodor-Brugsch-Straße in Buch, on the northern edge of Berlin. An application filed this autumn is judged under the current rules for every month of 2026.

My move this autumn

Put your numbers into the tool tonight. If the dot sits in a green square, fill in the online application before the end of October, even if one payslip is still missing. Your money counts from the month it arrives, the district's waiting time stops being your problem, and under the draft law your 2026 amount is protected if the new rules turn out lower.

If the dot sits in the pale area, you have lost five minutes and gained an answer. Check again after your next rent increase, or when your household changes. The official background is on the federal building ministry's Wohngeld page, and for the rest of the winter bills, my notes on the Berlin heating season are a good next read.

Image credits

Source and licence details for the 4 photographs used in this article.

Altbau apartment buildings on Schillerstraße, Charlottenburg: MB-one, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The residential tower at Helene-Weigel-Platz in Marzahn: Lotse, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Karl-Marx-Straße with Rathaus Neukölln: Dguendel, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Rathaus Kreuzberg on Yorckstraße: Fridolin freudenfett, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.