Hamburg attacks bureaucratic monsters: parental allowance is becoming more digital!

Hamburg attacks bureaucratic monsters: parental allowance is becoming more digital!

Something exciting is happening in Hamburg: Finance Senator Andreas Dressel has launched a legislative initiative that aims to implement over 80 reform measures to simplify parental allowance and drastically reduce bureaucracy. The current regulation of parental allowance, in Dressel's words a “bureaucratic monster”, not only leads to longer processing times, but remains inadequate despite an increase in staff. This is also confirmed by Welt.

The goals of the initiative are clear: the focus is on simplifying administration and improving citizen-oriented digital services. Dressel demands that the federal legislature should pay more attention to the level of enforcement of its laws in order to avoid future problems with administration. As part of this, Hamburg also plans to expand the use of digital offerings and make them better known, especially in the district registry offices.

Digital progress for Hamburg’s citizens

A further step towards digitalization is the introduction of a housing benefit app, which is scheduled to come onto the market in the first quarter of 2026 in order to process applications digitally in the future. In addition, a chatbot will answer questions about the application starting in the fourth quarter. This is intended to increase the completeness of the applications. The “Nemo ST” program, which promotes the modernization of registry offices in Hamburg, has the clear goal of significantly reducing the processing times for births and deaths.

The average processing times should even be reduced from over ten days in July 2024 to just 3.3 to 6.5 days in spring 2025. Hamburg intends to make registry offices more service-oriented by 2026 with a central online portal and new software for booking appointments, which is crucial for around 1.4 million services per year from the 745 employees at 31 locations.

Simplifications at national level

But it's not just Hamburg that's trading. At the national level, the new government is also providing information about comprehensive measures to modernize parental allowance. A central point is the digital application and the introduction of flexible calculation bases for the self-employed. According to Elterngeld, the minimum and maximum amounts as well as the income limit, which was recently reduced to 175,000 euros, should also be increased.

The plans to support foster parents and the promotion of partnership models are particularly family-friendly. What is also new is that maternity leave for the self-employed should be better secured; An initial review of possible financing models and an educational campaign on maternity protection rights are pending.

Reducing bureaucracy as a task for society as a whole

The approaches to reducing bureaucracy seem promising, but the question remains whether these measures are sufficient. The Alliance of Germany points out that there has been talk about reducing bureaucracy since the 1990s, but the actual bureaucracy is growing. In order to overcome this challenge, measures such as anchoring the reduction in bureaucracy in the Basic Law and the introduction of a “one-in-two-out” law are essential.

The latest developments in Hamburg and at the national level make it clear that the will to act is there, but political determination remains necessary to achieve truly noticeable progress. It remains to be seen whether the goals set and the measures announced can really ease the everyday burden on families in Germany.