Vienna FPÖ leader wants social benefits cut to zero
Vienna's Freedom Party leader Dominik Nepp says people who put religious rules above Austrian law should lose their social benefits entirely. Asked in a newspaper interview published this weekend whether minimum income support should be cut to zero in such cases, he answered: "Yes."
Nepp set out a wider package alongside that demand. He wants social benefits for people who are not Austrian citizens reduced, and he wants newly allocated council flats in Vienna tied to holding citizenship. His stated aim is to make the city less attractive to people who, in his view, do not work or do not want to integrate, while those who learn German, take a job and pay taxes would be unaffected. He puts the cost of Vienna's minimum income support paid to people without Austrian citizenship at around one billion euros a year.
None of this is law. Nepp leads the opposition in Vienna; the city is run by the SPÖ and NEOS, and a demand made in an interview changes nothing about the money you receive this month or next. It is worth knowing because it sets out what one large party would do if it entered the city government.
What has already changed is separate, and it is real. Since 1 January 2026 Vienna no longer pays Mindestsicherung to people holding subsidiary protection. They receive Grundversorgung instead. For a single person without children that is roughly 440 euros a month rather than about 1,230 euros. The alternative offered is a place in a state-funded facility where accommodation and meals are provided and the cash allowance is around 60 euros a month. Most other Austrian provinces had been doing this for longer; Vienna followed.
If you hold subsidiary protection in Vienna and your payment dropped this year, that is the reason. If you are unsure which category you fall into — asylum status, subsidiary protection, or another residence title — the amount you are entitled to depends on it, and a social advice centre or your case worker at the MA 40 can confirm which rules apply to you.