Nearly half of nursing‑home residents-about 44 %-depend on social assistance. As of 2024, data obtained by the Bündnis Soziale Gerechtigkeit und Wirtschaftliche Vernunft (BSW) from the Federal Statistical Office show that 353,575 of roughly 800,000 residents will need social aid, up 19,000 from the previous year’s figure of 334,515.

BSW founder Sahra Wagenknecht told a news magazine that nursing homes are turning into “poverty traps”. She warned that the required equity contributions are edging older generations toward expropriation. Wagenknecht has called for a care‑cost cap of €1,000 and insists that individual contributions should not exceed the average pension.