If you want to benefit from the new housing benefit in Potsdam, you may have to be patient. As can be seen from a response from the city administration to a small inquiry from the Green City Councilor Wiebke Bartelt, the average processing time for complete documents is currently around 15 weeks. At the end of last year it was still twelve weeks.
The long processing time is mainly due to the consequences of the cyber attack on the town hall at the beginning of the year. The new employees had to be trained. In addition, the instructions from the federal and state governments for implementing the reform in administrative practice were only published very late – immediately before the Housing Benefit Plus Act came into force. Another focus was on the additional application for a heating subsidy.
17 new posts for authority
While there are significantly more applications, fewer were processed in the first few months of 2023. So there is a traffic jam. In the past year, fewer than 1000 applications were made each month, often only 700. According to the information, there were always between 1000 and 1200 in the first three months of 2023. At the same time, the number of notifications went from 1750 in the first quarter of 2022 to 1152 in the year first quarter of 2023.
The federal government had reformed the housing allowance at the turn of the year and expanded the circle of those entitled to benefits. In order to be able to process the applications, 17 additional positions have been created and filled in the town hall. Overall, the housing benefit authority currently has 29 positions.
