BAföG switches to digital application processing

The BAföG offices of the student unions repeatedly point out the same problem: Because the processing of paper documents takes far too much time, students often have to wait months for their money after submitting their application. The BAföG Office in Aachen has now launched its own system for digital processing in order to significantly speed up the data entry and processing procedures.

In order for BAföG benefits to be approved, a complete application must be submitted. This usually consists of several forms and a pile of different supporting documents. The day-to-day work of employees at the BAföG Office is usually tedious: as the documents often arrive in paper form, envelopes have to be opened, forms copied several times, scanned and filed in folders.

Even though the federal government has now made it possible to submit applications electronically, the offices are still not spared analog processing: in 2022, paper files were managed for around 500,000 students across Germany. This is because if an application comes in by email or via the BAföG portal, it still has to be printed out and filed in folders.

In Aachen, Studierendenwerk has therefore now developed its own system for processing applications. This is purely digital, does not require any paper and offers advantages for employees and students alike, as digital processing is quicker, leads to more transparency, fewer misunderstandings and, of course, faster payment of funds.

Paperless in future, please
The prerequisite for this is an electronic application. The BAföG Office therefore requests that applications are only submitted by email or via the bafoeg-digital.de portal so that they can be processed quickly using the appropriate software without having to be printed out in advance. Students can therefore contribute to digital processing themselves by

• no longer submitting the application in paper form by post, but by e-mail to bafoeg@stw.rwth-aachen.de or via the bafoeg-digital.de portal,
• indicating the grant number in the subject line of the e-mail, if available
• and only send missing documents to the BAföG Office electronically.