A Pflege-Wohngemeinschaft (Pflege-WG, shared care flat) is a shared home for usually three to twelve people who need care, with a care service on site around the clock. Legally, every resident remains a tenant and keeps all the home care benefits of the Pflegekasse (long-term care insurance fund) – plus 224 € Wohngruppenzuschlag (shared-housing supplement) a month. Berlin has more Pflege-WGs than anywhere else in Germany, while provision in Brandenburg is growing more slowly.

Details

The Pflege-WG is the middle way between your own flat and a care home. Instead of living in an institution, several people rent a large flat together. Each person has their own room, while the kitchen and living room are shared. An ambulanter Pflegedienst (home care service) is usually present around the clock, and there are often everyday support workers who cook, do the shopping and give the day a structure.

Berlin leads the country: 773 Pflege-Wohngemeinschaften with around 6.081 places are recorded in the Landespflegeplan Berlin 2025 (pp. 82–83), with an occupancy rate of around 91,7 %. Free places are therefore scarce – anyone looking should start early and enquire in several places at the same time. In Brandenburg provision is thinner and more concentrated in the towns and in the districts around Berlin.

Two basic types – the most important difference

Selbstverantwortete WG (resident-run shared flat): The residents and their relatives organise the flat share themselves. Together, in a committee, they decide on admitting new residents, on the everyday support staff and on the care service – which every person is free to choose. The landlord may not also be the care service. This form offers the greatest self-determination, but it requires an active, reliable committee of relatives. In Berlin it is only partly subject to the Wohnteilhabegesetz (WTG), and in Brandenburg usually not to the BbgPBWoG.

Anbieterverantwortete WG (provider-run shared flat): One provider organises housing, support and care together. That is more convenient and more reliable, but it is closer to a small institution. In return, state supervision applies in full: in Berlin the Heimaufsicht (care home inspectorate) at the LAGeSo supervises under the WTG, in Brandenburg the “Aufsicht für unterstützende Wohnformen” at the LASV under the BbgPBWoG.

Before signing a contract, ask for written confirmation of which type it is. Your rights, your freedom of choice and the supervision arrangements all depend on it.

What the Pflegekasse pays (as at 2026)

• Pflegegeld (cash care allowance) or Pflegesachleistung (care benefits in kind) just as in your own flat: Pflegegeld 347 € (PG 2), 599 € (PG 3), 800 € (PG 4), 990 € (PG 5); Pflegesachleistung 796 €, 1.497 €, 1.859 € and 2.299 € per month respectively. The Kombinationsleistung (combination benefit) is possible as well.
• Wohngruppenzuschlag: 224 € per month per person under § 45f SGB XI (until 31.12.2025: § 38a SGB XI). Conditions: at least three and no more than twelve residents, at least three of them with Pflegegrad 1 to 5; a jointly financed on-site support worker for organisational and support tasks; and no full inpatient care.
• Entlastungsbetrag (monthly relief amount): 131 € per month – for support and everyday help, in a WG often used for the everyday support worker.
• Start-up funding for a newly founded WG: up to 2.613 € per person, no more than 10.452 € per shared household (§ 45g SGB XI, until the end of 2025 § 45e), for the barrier-free conversion of the shared flat. The application has to be made within one year of the WG being founded – and this deadline expires for good.
• Home adaptation measures: up to 4.180 € per measure; where several entitled people live together, the amount rises to up to 16.720 €. See Home adaptation.

You have to pay for the rent, the service charges, the household kitty for food and often a share of the flat rate for the on-site support worker yourself. In Berlin the monthly personal contribution is often in the same range as the Eigenanteil (personal contribution) in a care home, depending on location and facilities – do the sums for your own case instead of relying on rules of thumb.

What to do

1. Define your search area. Being close to relatives matters more than the fittings – visits are what keep a WG going.
2. Make several enquiries in parallel. With occupancy above 90 %, a single waiting list is not enough. Ask explicitly what position you are in on the list.
3. Clarify the type: resident-run or provider-run? Who provides the on-site support worker, who pays for them, and how much is each person’s share?
4. Keep the contracts separate: the tenancy agreement, the care contract and the support agreement should be separate and terminable individually. Tying them together (“only with our care service”) is not permitted in a selbstverantwortete WG.
5. Apply for the Wohngruppenzuschlag as soon as the move is settled – informally, with the Pflegekasse, together with confirmation from the WG about the on-site support worker and the number of residents.
6. Try it out: visit the WG at mealtime. How much conversation is there? What is the tone like? How many people with dementia live there?
7. Not enough money? Check “Hilfe zur Pflege” (means-tested help with care costs) at the Sozialamt (social welfare office); in a WG with home care, the cost of accommodation is also assessed under SGB XII.

Where can you get help?

• Pflegestützpunkt (care support point): free, provider-neutral advice on finding a WG, on contracts and on funding. Find a Pflegestützpunkt near you.
• WGs in the directory: under Directory, filter by the service type “Pflege-WG”, by district or rural district and by specialisms such as dementia, intensive care or culturally sensitive care.
• Information evenings and carers’ groups on forms of housing: See dates.
• Supervision and complaints: Heimaufsicht Berlin (LAGeSo) for provider-run WGs; in Brandenburg the Aufsicht für unterstützende Wohnformen at the LASV.

All sums of money: as at 30.07.2026 (long-term care insurance benefit rates unchanged since 1.1.2025). The sections on the Wohngruppenzuschlag and on start-up funding were renumbered on 1.1.2026 (§ 45f and § 45g SGB XI). Figures on the number of WGs: Landespflegeplan Berlin 2025, pp. 82–83.