Following the introduction of Housing Benefit Plus, the city of Nuremberg had to deal with a threefold increase in the number of people entitled to apply and, as a result, a lack of capacity, overtime and ever longer processing times. As the Franconian metropolis has been committed to process optimisation for years as part of its digitalisation strategy, the solution was quickly found: A software robot that independently carries out data synchronisation in the background and files incoming housing benefit applications online in the e-file for further processing after checking them in the specialist procedure. "The housing benefit robot was quickly accepted as a new 'team member'," says a delighted Dieter Frank, Head of Housing at the Nuremberg Social Welfare Office.
With around 2,500 hours saved, the 2023 robot will have a positive impact on administrative work and Nuremberg residents will also benefit from faster processing of their applications. The expert jury nominated the housing benefit robot in the "Digital Award" category for cities and municipalities with over 20,000 inhabitants. After public online voting with over 5,000 votes cast, the city of Nuremberg emerged as one of three winners.
