Parking Brake Handle Loose

I noticed on my 2011 VW Jetta TDI (Automatic Trans) the parking brake handle feels a little loose when first pulling up on the handle. I can lift up the handle at least about 3 inches before feeling resistance. It did not use to do this before.
A couple of weeks ago I noticed that the handle could move about 1 inch before feeling resistance, so the issue has gotten a little worse. I can lift the handle a little without pressing the release button. Not sure if this is normal.
I only use the parking brake very occasionally. Is this a somewhat common issue? Any ideas?
(Sorry if this is covered in the forum. I tried a search with no luck)
Thanks

I had this issue in the winter. Water got in the rear brake lines cause the line to freeze which locked one of rear brake. I took it to VW & got it looked it, it was covered under warranty. Seeing that winter is over. Won't hurt to have them take a look at it.

I adjusted the cable by tightening the nut located under the arm rest. (I had read somewhere that it is a real pain to get at the nut but I had easy access to it by removing the bottom cover of the inside of the arm rest storage compartment)
I did have to adjust the nut quite a bit to get the handle to where it needed to be to make the parking brake useful.(probably about 3/4")

Is there an adjustment that can be made at the rear brakes?
I would prefer to back off the nut near the parking brake handle and adjust the parking brake at the wheel. If so I will likely do this when I change out my tires this fall.

Any ideas as to why the cable would have loosened off so much?

Thanks in advance,
Mark

joatman, I'm not sure how different your jetta is too my mk golf (uk model). but the nut you adjusted shouldn't need adjusting once its been set, when mine went faulty it was the cable that had deformed inside the tube ,so I replaced the cable no more problem, with yours you will need to find out what the fault is first ,it maybe that you have temporarly sorted it by adjusting it ,but you still need too find out why it happened, could be a seized calpier that's favorite on golfs,also the handbrake mechanism in the caliper seizes and fails. I'm not sure what sort of weather you get where you live but if its freezing ,that could be your problem with water ingress into the cables.i hope this helps .atb

Hey billy.whizz, thanks for your response.
I changed the tires over to winter tires and had a look at the parking brake cable end.
In my case the ball end of the cable came loose from the parking brake lever at the wheel. It appears that the lever that the end of the cable attaches to must have gotten stuck and not sprung back at some point and allowed the cable to come loose. (I noticed that when I had adjusted the nut inside the car that one side was tighter than the other and now I realize why)
I freed up the lever and sprayed some lube on it. Then loosened off the nut at the brake handle in the car and re-attached the cable at the wheel. Re-adjusted the nut in the car and so far seems okay. Guess that is an area that will need some spray lube every so often.
Hope this helps someone else.
Cheers

Had the same issue happen on my 2014 Jetta had to lube up the lever on the caliper

our 2010 had some slop, it wasn't a concern as there was still leniently of pull left before maxing out.

I'd rather have some slop than constant tension on the cables/calipers.