Frankfurt housing benefit applications now processed a month faster

Frankfurt’s Wohngeldstelle, the city office that handles applications for housing benefit, is now processing applications about a month faster than it did last year. The Frankfurter Neue Presse reports that the average wait has fallen from 4.5 months to around 3.4 months, though the city says it is too early to credit its new AI assistant, “wohni”, for the change.

What happened

The Wohngeldstelle is part of the Amt für Wohnungswesen, Frankfurt’s municipal housing office. Wohngeld is a state housing allowance that helps households on lower incomes with their housing costs. According to the office’s spokesperson, Johannes Schramm, speaking to the Frankfurter Neue Presse, the average processing time for a Wohngeld application is currently around 3.4 months. In 2025 it was 4.5 months. On average, applicants now wait a little over a month less for their application to be dealt with.

The city introduced an AI-supported tool called “wohni” this year. It began in a test phase in April and has only been in regular use by staff since September. That is later than first assumed, and Schramm said a direct comparison of processing times before and after its introduction is not possible. He pointed to other factors behind the shorter waits, in particular an improved staffing situation. Staff first had to learn the new system, and after roughly two months of regular operation he said it was too early for a reliable assessment.

So far, 854 applications have been processed with support from wohni, according to Schramm. The tool is meant to take time-consuming routine work off caseworkers. It reads digital documents automatically and organises their contents, which cuts down on manual preparation. It can also draft first letters to applicants asking for missing documents. A built-in chatbot answers questions based on a large body of legal texts, which Schramm said helps new staff build up practical knowledge more quickly.

The AI does not decide on applications. Schramm told the newspaper that the final review and decision remain with the caseworkers. Wohni supports the work but does not replace professional judgement, and it does not issue Bescheide, the official written decisions on an application.

What it means for you

If you live in Frankfurt and have applied for Wohngeld, or plan to, the figures from the Amt für Wohnungswesen suggest you can expect a shorter wait than applicants faced in 2025. Around 3.4 months is still an average, so individual cases may take more or less time.

The AI tool is currently used only for Wohngeld applications submitted online. Paper applications are not processed with wohni. The Frankfurter Neue Presse does not report whether online applications are decided faster than paper ones, so the choice of route should not be based on that assumption.

If you receive a first letter asking you to send missing documents, it may have been drafted automatically by the system. A human caseworker still checks your application and makes the decision, and your Bescheid will come from the office, not from the AI. Because the tool works by reading digital documents, sending complete and legible files with an online application is likely to help, though the source does not give specific guidance on this.

Delays have not disappeared. Schramm said 257 applications are currently waiting on which work has not yet started. He said the size of this backlog depends partly on how many new applications arrive and how many staff are available, and that it cannot be linked directly to the use of the AI.

What to watch next

The city has not yet drawn conclusions about wohni. The Frankfurter Neue Presse describes the first interim results as mixed: the office has become faster and the AI now handles part of the routine work, but whether it will reduce waiting times and backlogs over the long term will only become clear after a longer period of regular operation. Residents waiting on a decision may want to watch for future figures from the Amt für Wohnungswesen on processing times and the number of untouched applications, and for any decision to extend the tool beyond online applications.

Source: Frankfurter Neue Presse