Unlawful withdrawal

Vienna “housing bonus” reclaimed in around 50,000 cases

The reason for the reclaim was that the income limits had been exceeded. It appears that an unlawful withdrawal was made.

(Bild: Harald Jahn / picturedesk.com)

Vienna's "housing bonus" of 200 euros was paid out to over 620,000 households in 2023. However, the city demanded the money back in almost 50,000 cases - due to income limits being exceeded. Those affected received a written request for repayment. 

To compensate for inflation, a "housing bonus" was originally launched in 2023 - around 140 million euros were made available for this purpose. It was paid out to a total of 620,100 households, each of which received 200 euros, as Housing Councillor Kathrin Gaal (SPÖ) explained in the provincial parliament on Wednesday. However, not everyone was allowed to keep the bonus: In exactly 48,899 cases, it was reclaimed. 

Annual income exceeded 40,000 euros
The reason for this was that the applicable income limits had been exceeded. These were staggered according to single or multi-person households. The former, for example, were not allowed to receive more than 40,000 euros in annual income. 

Unlawful withdrawal
In those cases in which it was determined during the review that the withdrawal was apparently unlawful, a written request for reimbursement was first made. Most of them complied with the request: According to Gaal, 96 percent of those affected have already repaid the amount.