Books / Law as Code in Practice: German Housing Benefit (Wohngeld) / Appendix A
Appendix A
The Answer Card and Its Statuses
Contents of Law as Code in Practice: German Housing Benefit (Wohngeld)
Every answer in this book comes from one question asked of the model about one file on one date. The chapters show it as a table row, an answer card or a short excerpt; behind it is a saved answer document. This appendix lists what that answer carries and the statuses the book uses.
What an answer carries
| Part | What it says | First shown |
|---|---|---|
| The question | the statement or amount asked about, the file and its legal date | Chapter 0 |
| Facts used | the family’s data, each with its origin: declared by the household (case_input) or decided by an authority (adjudicated) |
Chapter 3 |
| Parameters | the values of the annexes, each tied to the row of the Anlage in force on the date and to the issue of the Bundesgesetzblatt that published it | Chapter 1 |
| Operations | a proof graph, rule by rule, from the facts to the result — for the formula, M, Y, the unrounded z4 and the rounded amount | Chapter 4 |
| Sections | the section behind each rule, in the edition in force on the date of the question | Chapter 3 |
| Truth status | whether the facts and rules support the statement, its opposite, neither, or both | Chapter 1 |
| Requests | a question the Act leaves to an authority, with its addressee | Chapter 6 |
| Issues | why there is no amount where there is none: missing values, a conflict of records | Chapters 1, 8 |
| Fingerprints | the program, case and result hashes that let the answer be replayed | Chapter 9 |
The answer card
Every volume of this series shows a decision on the same card: the question, the legal date, the answer with its status, the claim or right where there is one, the decisive provisions, the sources, the readings applied, the open questions and the fingerprints. The card for the Vogts’ monthly Wohngeld on 1 January 2025, as Chapter 3 shows it:
| Question | monthly Wohngeld and the claim to it, Familie Vogt |
| Legal date | 1 January 2025 — values of the second WoGFV |
| Answer | €485 a month (Mietzuschuss) — established |
| Claim | €485 — established |
| Decisive provisions | the amount — § 19 Abs. 1–2 with Anlagen 1–3, last step Anlage 3 Nr. 3; the claim — §§ 19–21 |
| Sources | § 19 Abs. 1, 2 WoGG; Anlagen 1–3 as published in BGBl. 2024 I Nr. 314 |
| Readings applied | intermediate values longer than ten decimal places are rounded half up to ten (Chapter 4) |
| Open questions | none — the § 21 Nr. 3 assessment is recorded as decided by the authority |
| Fingerprints | program sha256:8a69e9ad…, case sha256:8eb8b743… (Chapter 9) |
Truth status
| Status | In this book | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
TRUE_ONLY |
established | The facts and rules support the statement and do not support its opposite. |
FALSE_ONLY |
refuted | They support the opposite and do not support the statement. Not met in this book. |
NEITHER |
not established | They support neither. This is not zero and not a refusal: often a fact is missing, and the model names the open premise. |
BOTH |
contradiction | They support both. The answer keeps both, with their sources, for review instead of choosing silently. |
Evaluation status and issues
The truth status says what follows; the evaluation status and the issues say whether the model could answer at all, and if not, why.
| Status or issue | Meaning | Chapter |
|---|---|---|
REQUIRES_JUDGMENT |
The Act leaves a question to the authority — under § 21 Nr. 3, whether claiming would be abusive. The answer carries a request naming the Wohngeldbehörde, the question and the answer the claim needs. | 6 |
MISSING_PARAMETER_VALUE |
The model holds no annex value for the date of the question — for 1 January 2027, after the last values this model holds. It does not say that no values are in force. | 1, 8 |
EDITION_NOT_APPLICABLE |
The model holds no edition for the date — before 1 January 2023. | 1 |
KEY_CONFLICT |
The file holds two values where the model admits one, such as two agreed rents for one tenancy. | 8 |
A flag, not a status
Where a case lies outside what the model covers — an owner-occupier’s Lastenzuschuss, some co-residents whose share of the rent § 11 Abs. 2 sets aside, a residence title under § 3 Abs. 5 Satz 3 — the model establishes the flag ausserhalb_des_modells and gives no amount. The flag is a statement about the model, not about the person’s entitlement (Chapter 8).