Housing Benefit = governmental support

Housing benefit is financial support from the government to help you pay for ever increasing housing costs. It is a subsidy distributed in monthly instalments which are then shared between all household or family members (only one person in the household can apply). Each half a year, the eligibility of the household is examined again.

As a foreigner, you can apply, if you have been living in the Czech Republic for over a year with a valid residence permit.

You are eligible if 

1. Your housing costs (rent, electricity, gas, utilities, water, etc.) are more than 30% of the whole household net income (including any other benefits the household receives). 
2. At the same time, these 30% of your income must not exceed the amount of the standardised housing costs per month, aka the ‘normative costs’. The normative cost of housing is determined as the average total cost of housing according to the size of the municipality and the number of household members¹. 

These normative costs for the people with the accommodation contract for 2023 are: 

1. Prague and Brno: 16 729 CZK/month (1 or 2 people in a household), 19 212 CZK/month (3 people in a household), 23 195 CZK/month (4 and more people in a household)
2. Municipalities with at least 70 000 inhabitants: 14 197 CZK/month (1 or 2 people in a household), 15 900 CZK/month (3 people in a household), 19 202 CZK/month (4 and more people in a household) 
3. Municipalities with 69 999 inhabitants and less: 13 737 CZK/month (1 or 2 people in a household), 15 299 CZK/month (3 people in a household), 18 477 CZK/month (4 and more people in a household)

The amount of money you are eligible for is established by assessing the household income and the housing costs in the ‘decisive period’. The decisive period translates as the last three months of your economic activity and/or collection of other benefits.

Each 6 months, you will have to deliver a new overview of your current household income and housing costs as the office will need to make sure that you are still eligible for the support. 

The procedure of applying for a housing benefit is between the more challenging ones as you have to deliver a number of documents at the time of first application. However, during subsequent visits, you only have to deliver the overview of the income and housing costs.

Only one adult member of the household can apply. As for the timing, you can apply for it up to three months retroactively. You apply at the regional Employment office, at the department of the State Social Support (Úřad práce, Státní sociální podpora, Polní 1011/37, tram stop Vojtova) that belongs under the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs.

Needed documents

• form called Application for housing benefit (Žádost o příspěvek na bydlení) signed by the applicant and every adult household member (children do not need to sign, but they still have to be included)
• form called Confirmation of Income for the Last Quarter (Doklad o výši čtvrtletního příjmu) signed by the applicant. Each adult household member has to fill up their own. It is necessary to support the information included in the form by the Confirmation of Income (see below)
• form called Confirmation of Housing Costs (Doklad o výši nákladů na bydlení) signed by the applicant and, if possible, confirmed by the provider of utilities. If no such confirmation from the utilities’ provider is available, it is necessary to deliver the Certificate of Costs for Services and Certificate of Energy Costs (see below)
• Accommodation Contract (if you’re subleasing, also the owner’s consent with your sublease)
• Confirmation of Income – For example, a pay slip.
• Certificate of Costs for Services – Proof of the cost of services such as water, sewerage, garbage collection, etc, for previous 3 months², ³.
• Certificate of Energy Costs – Proof of the cost of electricity or gas for previous 3 months², ³
• Service and Energy Billing – If you have received an overpayment or underpayment in the given 3 months.
• Student Certificate – If your child is a student over the age of 15.
• Other Person’s Declaration – If you have another person over the age of 18 living with you, you will need a signed declaration from them that they are actually living with you.
• Valid residence permit of all household members.

Legally speaking, you can apply anytime you are eligible and can deliver needed documents. However, for the sake of highest comfort, it is best to apply each April (beginning of the 2nd quarter) or October (beginning of the 4th quarter). The reason is that the labour office prefers to examine your eligibility based on the billing documents from the first and third quarter each year. If you deliver an overview from a different timeframe, they will accept it but they will ask for the 1st/3rd quarter overview at the earliest convenience (not only after half a year) and interrupt the benefit until you deliver it.   

Don’t forget, foreigners can apply only if they have been living in the Czech Republic for over a year with a valid residence permit.

You can apply online via your data mail box and avoid going to the office in person. However, as of now, the application is rather challenging as well. Here is what you should do:

1. You have to collect all the documents that confirm your eligibility for the benefit (confirmation of income, certificate of energy costs, etc.) and check if it contains a signature of any third party (stamp from your employer, your landlord’s signature, etc.)
2. A) Documents that do NOT contain a signature of the third party: Upload these documents to your data mailbox as attachments
   B) Documents that DO contain a signature of the third party: You have to bring them to the CzechPOINT labelled Post office to have it officially converted into your data mailbox. You can read more about the process here
3. You have to fill in all the forms which are relevant for you⁴, ⁵ on this website (column in the right, titled Online Formulář and Formulářové přílohy). We recommend focusing on the button called Vyplnit s přílohami. Using this you can fill up all the needed forms in one go.
4. You have to click on Přejít k odeslání and then on Odeslat přes datovou schránku
5. You have to fill up the pop-up window called Elektronické odeslání podání and click on Poslat
6. You will be redirected to your data mail box. In it you have to verify that all the forms and all the documents (including the converted ones) are there and you hit send.

Since the online application process is rather challenging, we currently recommend applying in person.