On Friday 19 August 2022, Luxembourg's Ministry of Housing clarified on a clerical error concerning the net annual income ceiling for accessing the maximum amount of monthly aid.
The law providing for the upward adjustment of the rent subsidy and thus transposing an element of the spring tripartite agreement entered into force on 1 August 2022. However, during the application of the new values, it turned out that the version of the text tabled and voted on by the Chamber of Deputies and published in the Official Journal contains a material error. This error affects less than 1% of the beneficiary population and will be corrected as soon as possible by an amending bill with retroactive effect from 1 August, which is scheduled to be presented to the Council of Government on 2 September 2022.
The material error concerns the income ceiling for accessing the maximum amount of monthly aid set at €400.00 for the category of households with three or more children. This ceiling is indicated in the appendix to the law in the table of calculation parameters. This net annual income ceiling for accessing the maximum amount of monthly aid set at €400.00 should be €8,937.00 (index number 100). The ceiling currently indicated in the table is €6,937.00.
The effect of this error is that beneficiary households with three or more children whose annual net income currently exceeds €58,269.00 will be allocated a lower rent subsidy than expected. A total of 31 households currently benefiting from the rent subsidy are concerned. The amount of aid paid to them is not less than that granted before the entry into force of the new law of 22 July 2022. After the recalculation of the files concerned, all the households affected will be informed by mail of the updated amount of rent subsidy. The clerical error has no impact on the households' eligibility for a rent subsidy.
It is expected that the rectification of the material error will apply retroactively to the date of 1 August 2022, so that each beneficiary household concerned − which would have obtained a reduced amount of aid because of this material error − will receive the difference as soon as the amending law is published. Thus, all beneficiaries will obtain the total amount of assistance initially targeted by the government. No action on the part of the beneficiaries concerned is necessary.
