After one-off payment: Thousands of inactive BundID accounts are deleted

Setback for the federal government's efforts to drive forward the digitalization of administration and e-government with the help of BundID: The number of users of the government access ID and the associated online account for citizens has fallen by several hundred thousand since the end of 2024. This was reported by the Federal Ministry of Digital Affairs to the AFP news agency. The reason given was the routine deactivation of accounts that had not been used for a long period of time.

According to the ministry, there were still around 4.86 million active BundID accounts on August 11, 2025. At the end of 2024, this figure was still just under 5.3 million, and in March 2025 it was just under 6 million. According to the Digital Administration Dashboard, the biggest drop in registrations occurred in April 2025.

"The decline in the number of user accounts can be explained by the automatic deletion of inactive accounts in the first quarter of 2025", a spokesperson for the ministry told AFP, adding that "due to data protection regulations, user accounts must be deleted after 24 months of inactivity".

Energy price flat rate as BundID booster

One of the main reasons for the shortfall is likely to be accounts that pupils and students created in 2023. The BundID was required at the time in order to receive the 200 euro one-off payment as compensation for the rise in energy prices. After receiving the lump sum, the e-government account was apparently no longer attractive for many of the applicants.

However, the number of BundID accounts has risen slightly again since May 2025, the statement continued. The monthly increase currently averages 154,000 accounts. In addition, the number of monthly BundID logins has doubled since 2024, rising from an average of one million to two million. The department was currently unable to make an exact statement about which online administrative services citizens use the most. The current surveys would not allow this.

DeutschlandID to follow

Citizens who have created a BundID user account can identify themselves digitally to authorities when using online services for connected administrative services. The Federal Ministry of the Interior provided the BundID for the first time in 2019. Since the change of government, the Digital Ministry has been in charge of this. At present, almost 1,800 online services, platforms and portals are to be connected to the solution. The federal account and the electronic identity (eID) linked to the ID card led a niche existence for years. Initially, there were only a few practical applications. Last year, 22 percent of the population had already used the function.

Above all, the one-off payment linked to the BundID and the eID as well as the Kulturpass have made the online ID and the user account better known. The Online Access Act 2.0 (OZG) aims to create a standardized digital citizen account based on the BundID and rename it DeutschlandID. However, a security vulnerability in a municipal website recently opened up a data leak in the BundID. The identifier can be used to apply for parental allowance or BAföG, register and re-register a place of residence or register a car. For a good year now, citizens have also been able to use the BundID for the Federal Employment Agency's e-services.

(mma)