Frequently Asked Questions

Under Article 3 of the Joint Ministerial Decision, applications reaching the end of their six-month validity period may be automatically renewed for a further six months if the programme terms and requirements continue to be met. Beneficiaries are notified by email.

Please note:If application details have changed since the previous six-month period and those changes cannot be identified through electronic cross-checks, beneficiaries maywithdraw the application only during its sixth month of validityand submit a new one.

Applications will not be renewed if the programme terms and requirements are no longer met (for example, the electronic lease has expired, household composition has changed, or household income or property has changed). Beneficiaries will be sent anemail stating that the benefit will not be renewed automatically. They may submit a new application themselves if they wish.Please note:to avoid missing a month of support, the new application must besubmitted and approved during the sixth month of the current application’s validity.

This process is carried out at the end of each month for Housing Benefit applications whose first six-month period is expiring.Citizens should regularly check their email, including the spam folder, for updates on their application and any action they may need to take if it is not automatically renewed.

Please note! Notifications are sent to the email address provided in the application, not by SMS to a mobile phone.

No. If the lease used for your application does not cover the next six-month application period, the application cannot be renewed automatically. You must submit a new application with a new valid lease covering the next six-month period (for example, for applications submitted in September, the lease must be valid at least from 1 October 2019 to 31 March 2020).

During the final month of the application’s validity, withdraw it and submit a new application showing the changes to your household composition.

It is the final month for which your application is approved. For example, if you applied in May, your approval covers 1 June 2019 to 30 November 2019. November is the sixth month in which you can submit a new application.

Visit the Community Centre or the municipality’s Social Services Department with the required documents (confirmation of welfare benefit payments, income tax return and tax assessment) so that the welfare benefit can be excluded and your application can proceed.

This amount is now excluded from household income. If you filed your new tax return before Law 4609/2019 was passed, you must file an amended income tax return and then apply for the Housing Benefit. The platform’s income field displays a special notice that this amount is excluded.

Please note that an amended return must be filed during the same year as the original return. Information cannot be retrieved from an amended return filed and assessed after 1 January of the following year.

There is a discrepancy between your filed income tax return and the income amounts in earnings certificate files submitted to AADE by the bodies that paid them. Contact your local tax office for guidance on correcting the discrepancy.

Please note that an amended return must be filed during the same year as the original return. Information cannot be retrieved from an amended return filed and assessed after 1 January of the following year.

From the 2018 tax year, the domestic interest field allows deposit interest to be distinguished from compensation interest. Taxpayers must make this distinction when filing their income tax return. For guidance on correctly reporting this information, contact your local tax office.

Please note that an amended return must be filed during the same year as the original return. Information cannot be retrieved from an amended return filed and assessed after 1 January of the following year.

Since Housing Benefit applications are approved for six months, the lease must cover the same period, meaning it must be valid forat least six monthsfrom the month after the application is submitted.

EXAMPLE 1!For applications submitted in November (benefit period: December-May), the electronic lease entered on the platform must start no later than1 December 2019and end no earlier than31 May 2020.

EXAMPLE 2!For applications submitted in December (benefit period: January-June), the electronic lease must start no later than1 January 2020and end no earlier than30 June 2020.

If the electronic lease does not cover this period, it must be amended before you submit the Housing Benefit application.

IMPORTANT! The start and end dates in the amended property lease declaration must cover at least the six-month period for which the application will be approved. For example, for a lease expiring on 31 December 2019 and an application submitted in November, the amended declarationcannothave a start date later than 1 December 2019 or an end date earlier than 31 May 2019.

No. For programme purposes, benefit payments start in the month after the application is approved and continue for six months,without retroactive adjustment to the lease start date.

No. In this case they are renting part of a home, which is excluded from the programme. They must have one electronic lease listing them as co-tenants.

If the electronic lease declares a co-tenancy, one of the two tenants submits the application and the other is included as a household member. The application is shared, and the benefit is paid into the bank account entered in the application, where the applicant must be the account holder or joint account holder.

This was an issue with the electronic cross-check of the relevant lease field and has been resolved. Please try submitting your application again.

A household member can give consent online using their personal TAXIS credentials.

After the applicant creates and temporarily saves the application, the other adult household members must sign in to the Housing Benefit platform using their own TAXIS credentials. They will automatically be asked to consent to the application in which they are listed as household members.

If the other household members do not have TAXIS credentials, they must obtain them through their local tax office.

Otherwise, the application must be submitted through the Municipality or Community Centre with a consent form signed by all adult household members, with each signature duly certified.

Yes, when the application is submitted through a Municipality or Community Centre.

All adult household members applying must sign the form and have their signatures certified.

To finalise the application, select the ‘Submit Application’ button.

IMPORTANT!If you do not submit it finally, the application remains pending with the status ‘New’.

This person has also been found on another submitted application. They must be included in the application for the household where they live.

To change household composition by adding or removing a member, contact your Municipality or Community Centre and provide the relevant supporting documents.

Please note!Household composition can be changed only after the application’s six-month validity period.

Visit your Municipality or Community Centre and provide the relevant documents proving single-parent status. For more information, see the questions in the relevant section.

To complete the Housing Benefit application, the authorised employee informs the applicant which details have been pre-filled and are available from the electronic databases. The applicant identifies any missing details. After entering the application information into the online platform, the authorised employee prints the complete application showing the information provided.

The applicant signs the printed application before it is finally submitted, and the authorised employee keeps it in the physical file. By signing, the applicant confirms the application contents. If the cross-checks show no discrepancy with the information provided, the application can then be submitted finally.

No. They are removed from the application if proof of detention is provided. Only an authorised Municipality or Community Centre employee can remove them.

They can be removed by providing a lease for another home or another appropriate document proving that they live elsewhere (for example, confirmation of employment abroad).

The application cannot proceed. This information comes from the AADE online platform based on the latest tax return. If the household member no longer lives abroad, they must update their details with the competent tax office.

• Greek citizens must provide the Municipality or Community Centre with evidence that they lived in Greece during this period. Examples include school or university attendance records, previous tax returns showing the applicant as a dependent, an unemployment card, utility bills or a lease.
• Foreign nationals must provide the Municipality or Community Centre with a residence permit or another equivalent document proving lawful residence in Greece during those years. See the detailed answer to a later question.

IMPORTANT!The five-year residence requirement applies ONLY to the person submitting the application.

No.A late tax return, or a return filed after the tax identification number was obtained, does not prove five years of residence in Greece.

A residence permit valid throughout the last five years. For holders of a residence permit for beneficiaries of international protection (marked ‘refugee’ or ‘subsidiary protection’), humanitarian residence permits, and proof of an application to renew such permits, the start date of lawful residence is the date the asylum application was submitted, as shown by an official document.

A valid residence permit or proof of an application to renew it on the date the application is submitted.

Yes. They may apply if the permit is valid on the application date and they meet the five-year prior residence criterion.

No. Only the parents’ residence permits are required.

Yes, but that member will not be included. An authorised Municipality or Community Centre employee will remove them from the application.

If the residence permit number cannot be verified automatically, you cannot enter the expiry date yourself. Visit your Municipality or Community Centre so an authorised employee can finalise the application.

Visit your Municipality or Community Centre and provide your EU citizen registration certificate or proof of permanent residence in Greece.

European citizens must provide the Municipality or Community Centre with an EU citizen registration certificate or proof of permanent residence.

Beneficiaries of international protection (refugees and beneficiaries of subsidiary protection), as well as holders of humanitarian residence permits, may apply if they meet the five-year residence criterion.

Holders of proof of an applicationfor the issuance of a residence permitcannot apply for the Housing Benefit.

Foreign nationals holding an asylum-seeker cardcannotapply for the benefit. An equivalent programme for asylum seekers is provided by the Ministry of Migration Policy.

The Housing Benefit is a welfare programme for households renting their main residence. Households with a housing loan cannot apply.

Under Article 4(3) of the programme’s Joint Ministerial Decision, household members included in the application must reside legally and permanently in Greece. Members who permanently live, study or work abroad when the application is submitted are removed if the relevant evidence is provided.

A co-tenant who is not eligible (for example, a person without lawful residence, an asylum seeker or a student under 25) must be excluded from the household application. The authorised employee selects EDIT for that member and then selects NO in the CO-TENANT ELIGIBILITY field. The co-tenant is no longer counted as a household member when calculating the benefit, and their individual income is not included in total household income. They will remain listed in the application as ‘NOT ELIGIBLE TO PARTICIPATE’ in the household composition table.

A family is single-parent when one parent (unmarried, widowed or divorced, or because the other parent is in prison) has sole temporary or permanent custody of one or more minor children, either by law or under a court decision or notarial deed.

IMPORTANT!For this programme, the household must consist exclusively of the single-parent family: the parent and one or more children, at least one of whom must be a minor.

To be recognised as a single-parent family, the parent must be:

• unmarried, in which case provide a family status certificate or birth registration certificate;
• widowed, in which case provide a family status certificate or death registration certificate;
• divorced, in which case provide a court decision or notarial deed showing sole temporary or permanent custody of one or more minor children.

If the other parent is in a correctional facility, provide confirmation of detention from that facility.

If the children are adults, single-parent status does not apply.

Provide: a) the notarial deed dissolving the marriage, including the agreement granting sole custody to one parent; and b) proof that the deed was filed with the Registry Office or a family status certificate.

Yes, this qualifies as single-parent status. Parental responsibility is automatically shared by both parents from the child’s birth, except in specific cases. Therefore, recognition of single-parent status requires custody (temporary or permanent) established by a court decision or notarial deed under applicable law.

No. A statement that the spouses are separated is not enough. There must be a divorce application specifying which parent has custody of the children.

Yes. Single-parent status applies if there is at least one minor child.

For an application to be approved for a single-parent household with one minor and one adult child (who was listed as hosted on the tax return), the adult child must be marked as a ‘biological child’. Otherwise, they appear as another adult household member and the single-parent classification cannot be accepted.

No. In this case, single-parent status does not apply.

No. For this programme, the household must consist exclusively of the members of the single-parent family.

No, not while she is married.

You may record her as separated, but not as a single parent because there is no divorce or interim court decision governing custody.

If both parents live together, the family is not single-parent. Also, a household that includes other adult members in addition to the children cannot be classified as single-parent.

Yes, provided the two parents do not live together.

In this case, list the children as unprotected dependants without selecting the single-parent option.

Mark the minor child as a ‘biological child’ in their personal record, then select the single-parent option in the household composition field.

Accepted supporting documents include a divorce application, proof of separate homes (for example, separate leases or property titles) and utility bills.

The applicant must provide all the above documentstogetherand they must concern both spouses.

If separation cannot be substantiated with documents, a social assessment is recommended to establish the household’s actual circumstances.

Their application may proceed normally if they have an electronic lease and meet the programme terms and requirements.

Select Add and enter the child’s AMKA. If the information is not verified automatically, visit your Municipality or Community Centre with the birth registration certificate and family status certificate so an authorised employee can add the child. If the child does not have an AMKA, obtain one before proceeding.

IMPORTANT!You can add a member only when submitting an application. Once it has been submitted, household members cannot be added or removed during the following six months.

Hosted persons cannot apply on their own. In this case, one of the parents may apply and include the child as a hosted member, if the hosting was declared in the latest assessed tax return. The application must also include any other household members living under the same roof.

If the applicant does not know the people shown as hosted in their application, they must report the false declaration to the tax office. The report should then be submitted to the Municipality or Community Centre so the hosted persons can be removed and the application can proceed.

Only the person named on the lease may apply, and the application must include all members of the household.

A member may be addedonly when submitting the applicationand only in the cases of a spouse, child, co-owner or co-tenant. Therefore, he cannot be added to his partner’s application.

The Joint Ministerial Decision defines a multi-person household as all people living under the same roof. It includes: a) hosted persons or a hosted family, if hosting was declared in the latest assessed tax return;b) adult children up to age 25 studying at universities, schools, vocational education or training institutes, regardless of where they live, and c) people who have been granted or rent part of the household’s main home (Article 2).

Therefore, students up to age 25 may be included only as members of another household’s application; they cannot apply for the benefit on their own.

Students up to age 25 who live alone cannot apply for the Housing Benefit (Article 2(a)). This restriction applies to all students at universities, schools and vocational education or training institutes, whether or not they work or file a tax return. It includes postgraduate students and students at security forces academies.

If two households appear under the same DEDDIE supply number, a social assessment is required to confirm that they are separate homes and households.

You cannot amend your application after it has been approved. If you completed the required steps on time, the system will identify the change when it electronically checks the application details against the DEDDIE account details.

If you transferred the DEDDIE account to your name on time, there is no problem. If an issue arises during the electronic check, you may provide supporting documents to resolve it.

No, you do not need to withdraw the application. An approved application may be amended throughout the programme only to changethe contact details and bank account number (IBAN)either directly by the beneficiary or through their Municipality or Community Centre.

IMPORTANT!After making the change, select SAVE.

If the IBAN you provided is not an account in which you are the account holder or joint account holder, change it in your application and provide an account in which you are listed as an account holder or joint account holder.

IMPORTANT: You may change the IBAN until the end of the month following the month in which the first payment failed. Otherwise, the application is withdrawn after three consecutive failed deposits, and those amounts cannot be paid.

You may submit a new application and, if it is approved, receive the benefit for the next six months. Retroactive payment of amountsfrom the previous application is not provided in this case.

The reason for the suspension or withdrawal is shown in your application under APPLICATION HISTORY.

Contact your Municipality or Community Centre and provide evidence that the reason for suspending the application does not apply.

Contact the Social Services Department of your Municipality or your local Community Centre for assistance from the authorised employees responsible for the programme.