In theory, everything sounds very simple: if an employee is quarantined because of Corona, the employer reimburses them for the loss of earnings. He gets the money back from the Senate. In practice, however, this takes forever.
Thousands of applications from companies from 2020 and 2021 are still open. This resulted in a request from the FDP MP Christian Wolf (42).
A total of 33,000 applications were submitted in the past two years. Almost all of them digital – but the bureaucracy has not accelerated it. “The average processing time is about five months,” admits Secretary of State for Finance Barbro Dreher (64).
Almost half of the applications were rejected for a variety of reasons, including a lack of documentation or a different jurisdiction.
But: From 2021 alone, a third of the applications are still open – more than 7000! Even from 2020 not all applications have been processed yet…
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The official service portal of the capital says: “Employers have to pay compensation to the responsible authority (Senate Department for Finance) for the duration of the employment relationship, for a maximum of six weeks. The rightfully paid compensation will be reimbursed by the competent authority upon request.”
“A sign of inadequacy for the Berlin administration,” complains the FDP MP Wolf. “Employers make advance payments so that their employees do not lose earnings during the officially ordered quarantine.”
He emphasizes: “It is therefore only fair if the companies get their money reimbursed quickly.”
