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Wohngeld Calculator 2026: an estimate under § 19 WoGG

Enter your postal code, household, cold rent and income to see an estimate of monthly Wohngeld under § 19 WoGG, plus an indication of whether Wohngeld fits your situation or basic income support is usually examined instead. Everything runs in your browser; nothing is stored.

The calculator reproduces the formula of § 19 WoGG with Annexes 1 to 3 and then puts the result in context. It is not advice: the binding calculation is made by the Wohngeldstelle.

Where you live

The postal code gives us your municipality’s Mietstufe (Annex to § 1 para. 3 WoGV).

Select Mietstufe manually

Household

Everyone who lives and keeps house together. Household size drives both the maximum rent and the formula values.

Housing costs

Base rent plus cold utilities. Without heating, electricity and garage — these do not count for Wohngeld.

Used only for the comparison with basic income support, not in the Wohngeld formula. If left empty we use the relief amount under § 12 para. 6 WoGG as a rough estimate.

Income

One row per person: the flat deductions of § 16 WoGG apply to each household member separately, not to the total.

Allowances under § 17 WoGG

These amounts reduce the income counted. Skip if none applies.

€1,800 per year each at a degree of disability of 100, or below 100 combined with care at home (§ 17 no. 1).

Up to €1,200 per year per child is disregarded (§ 17 no. 4). The earnings must be entered above as an income row.

For the assessment

Used only to indicate which office usually handles such cases. The entry stays in your browser.

Or choose directly

Estimated Wohngeld

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Enter rent and income — the estimate will appear.

An estimate based on the general rules of the WoGG. Not legal advice. The binding decision is made by the authority.

As of 2026

The values in Annexes 1 to 3 of the WoGG have been unchanged since 1 January 2025 and still apply in 2026: under § 43 WoGG they are only updated every second year.

Not covered here are, among others, the allowance for 33 years of Grundrente periods (§ 17a WoGG), deductions for maintenance payments (§ 18 WoGG) and households in which individual members are excluded from Wohngeld (§ 11 para. 3 WoGG). In those cases the authority’s calculation will differ.

A reform of Wohngeld is planned for 1 January 2027: on 6 July 2026 the cabinet approved a bill that suspends the regular uprating, halves the permanent heating component and changes the calculation formula. The Bundestag and Bundesrat have not yet agreed — until then the values used here apply.

✓ Data verified on: 17 October 2026

All rates and thresholds follow the official figures published by the authorities:

No data is collected — everything runs in your browser.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Mietstufe and where does it come from?

It describes the rent level of your municipality (I to VII) and is set in the Annex to § 1 para. 3 of the Wohngeldverordnung. It determines the maximum rent that can be counted. We derive it from the postal code: the Annex is linked to the official municipality register of the Federal Statistical Office, covering 8,159 postal codes.

Which rent do I enter?

The Bruttokaltmiete: base rent plus cold utilities such as water and waste collection. Heating, electricity and garage do not count for Wohngeld. For heating the law provides a fixed relief amount under § 12 para. 6 WoGG, which the calculator adds automatically.

Why does the climate component not change my result?

Because § 12 para. 7 WoGG frames it as a surcharge on the maximum amounts: it raises the ceiling. If your rent is below the maximum amount anyway, raising the ceiling changes nothing. It only takes effect once the rent exceeds it.

Why does a very small income not produce more Wohngeld?

Annex 3 no. 1 WoGG prescribes minimum values for the variables M and Y. For a one-person household the calculation uses at least €396 of income even if there is actually less. Below that threshold the amount therefore stops rising — which is also why basic income support is usually the fitting route on a very small income.

What does the Plausibilitätsprüfung mean?

The Wohngeldstelle must examine on its own initiative whether the stated income is enough to live on. If it falls below the need under the SGB XII, the statements are examined particularly carefully. As a reference point, WoGVwV no. 15.01 para. 1 names the mark of income plus Wohngeld reaching 80 per cent of that need.

Can I receive Wohngeld and basic income support together?

As a rule, no. Under § 7 para. 1 WoGG, recipients of Grundsicherungsgeld under the SGB II or Grundsicherung im Alter under the SGB XII are excluded from Wohngeld where housing costs were taken into account in those benefits. The reverse is possible: where Wohngeld avoids the need for basic income support, it takes precedence.

How accurate is the calculator?

The formula, annexes and rounding are implemented one to one and checked against every worked example published by the BMWSB, where income, countable rent and the payment match to the cent and to the euro respectively. Differences arise where your case touches rules the calculator deliberately leaves out, such as § 17a or § 18 WoGG.

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