Municipal costs due to the Lower Saxony Disability Equal Opportunities Act reform

December 2021 saw the reform of Lower Saxony’s Disability Equal Opportunity Act (NBGG). As a result, the municipalities of Lower Saxony faced new tasks to meet requirements for the equal participation of people with disabilities. Since then, there has been disagreement between the state of Lower Saxony and municipal umbrella organisations on the question of whether and to what extent the newly transferred tasks come with an additional financial burden for municipalities, and whether the state should provide compensation. 

Lower Saxony’s Social, Employment, Health and Equal Opportunities Ministry commissioned Prognos, in collaboration with Prof. Dr. Thorsten Ingo Schmidt (University of Potsdam), with compiling an independent expert report that would enable a fact-based decision-making basis for both parties.

The goal of the expert report was to identify the central cost effects for municipalities of the latest modifications to the NBGG and to estimate the actual costs of the implementation of the reform for municipalities in Lower Saxony.

New tasks for municipalities

At the centre of the disagreement between the State of Lower Saxony and municipal umbrella organisations is the so-called connexity principle: the guideline in constitutional law states that the instance that decides on a task is also responsible for financing it and where necessary, for providing compensation payments, up to a certain threshold.

A legal review made it clear that the following parts of the changes in law implied a direct transfer of tasks from the State to municipalities: 

• The obligation of authorities to provide barrier-free communication for people with disabilities  
• Partial aspects of barrier-free construction 
• The new obligation for districts and independent towns and cities to hold inclusion conferences and compile inclusion reports 

According to the current legal status, for this part of the legislation alone, the State is certainly obliged to pay compensation. 

Great uncertainty surrounding the costs for municipalities 

The empirical survey showed that the municipalities encountered difficulty providing reliable data concerning the incurred costs resulting from the NBGG changes. This is, in part, due to the multiple small elements of the legislative changes, the implementation of which represents a cross-sectional task, as well as the non-systematic documentation of expenses, where they were incurred. It also seems that knowledge of the new legislation remains limited. 

Given the limited information available, the expert report identified the total costs of the reform for all municipalities in Lower Saxony as approximately 845,000 euros per year. However, the reliability of these results is limited by the lack of available data. 

If we focus only on the regulatory areas that are clearly connexity relevant, the assumed total charge for municipalities is 275,000 euros. The costs for specific areas that also fall under the connexity principle, cannot be effectively estimated. 

The State of Lower Saxony and municipal umbrella associations have agreed to a de minimis limit compensation payment equivalent to 0.25 euros per inhabitant. The expert report concludes that based on this value, the total burden for municipalities is at present well below this. In this respect, on the basis of the figures available, municipalities would not currently be entitled to financial compensation from the state of Lower Saxony. 

Our approach

Firstly, Prognos analysed all relevant documents. We then conducted expert interviews with various stakeholders to create a list of the potential cost impacts for municipalities resulting from the changes in legislation. An online survey of a sample of Lower Saxony municipalities followed the results of which were then extrapolated. Based on this, a qualified estimate of costs was provided.

For the legal scientific evaluation, the Prognos project team was supported by Prof. Dr. Thorsten Ingo Schmidt from the University of Potsdam.

In addition, regular steering committee meetings were held with representatives from the State of Lower Saxony, local community organisations, reference municipalities as well as people with disabilities.

Links and downloads

To the study (PDF in German)

Further Information on the Ministry website (in German)

Project team: Jan-Felix Czichon, Patrick Frankenbach, Rahel Reemtsma, Jan Tiessen

Latest update: 28.10.2024