Joint annual amount: New budget aims to help caregivers

Hanover. In Germany, approximately 5.7 million people require care, and approximately 4.9 million are cared for at home – usually by relatives, especially wives, daughters, and daughters-in-law. If caregivers become ill or need time off, many families face the threat of collapse. Long-term care insurance pays for a substitute in these cases.

There are two types of substitute care that are funded by long-term care insurance: respite care and short-term care. The location makes the difference: With respite care, a substitute caregiver from the home or a nursing service comes to the person's home. With short-term care, the person in need of care moves into a nursing home for a few weeks.

Until now, long-term care insurance paid for the two options from separate pots. This meant that if you only wanted or could use one of the two options, you had to submit a cumbersome application for reassignment and could often only receive a portion of the other benefit.

This is changing: Starting July 1, all care recipients will receive a common annual amount. The budgets for respite care (€1,685 per year) and short-term care (€1,854 per year) will be combined. Care recipients with at least care level 2 will be able to flexibly use up to €3,539 per year for short-term and/or respite care.

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“The most important advantage of the joint annual amount is that you can use the services more flexibly,” says Felizitas Bellendorf, care consultant at the North Rhine-Westphalia Consumer Advice Center.

"In addition, the subsidies can now be used for up to 56 days per year. Previously, there were different regulations for respite care and short-term care. This has been adjusted," explains Bellendorf. "And the combined annual amount also eliminates the previously required six months of pre-care time. Previously, this was the prerequisite for being able to use respite care."

"Nothing has fundamentally changed," says the consumer advocate. "People in need of care who require backup care from July 1st onwards will continue to apply for short-term or respite care themselves. This can be done both in advance, for example, if the caregiver is planning a vacation, and afterward, if the need was spontaneous."

In the second case, you would initially pay the bill yourself and later submit it to the nursing care insurance fund – as is usual for those with private insurance. With a power of attorney, relatives can also submit the application.

"If the substitute care is not provided by another relative, but by a nursing service or a nursing home, the new regulation provides a timely overview of the billed benefits," says Bellendorf. "This way, you can keep track of your remaining entitlement."

By the way: “If part of the entitlement was already used for preventative or short-term care before July 1, the amount will be deducted from the combined annual amount,” says Bellendorf, who sees the relief budget as a step in the right direction and hopes for an unbureaucratic implementation.

Edeltraut Hütte-Schmitz, a board member of the association "Wir pflegen," an advocacy and self-help organization for family caregivers, shares a similar view. However, she also has some criticisms. "Unfortunately, this new budget isn't a genuine relief budget," she complains. "It would be essential to include additional benefits, such as care benefits in kind and day care."

Day care, in particular, provides important relief for family caregivers, allowing them to continue working. "But what good is this benefit if the need cannot be met? Day care places are available for less than three percent of people in need of care," says Hütte-Schmitz.

A shortage that often leaves family caregivers empty-handed: "Because these benefit entitlements expire – because there are too few daycare places and because these funds cannot be used for other purposes," explains the expert. "In 2024 alone, more than 46 billion euros could not be accessed for this purpose."

Hütte-Schmitz sees another point of criticism in the narrow definitions, citing respite care as an example: "Reasons for respite care include vacation, leisure activities, business trips, and continuing education," she explains. "However, if the caregiver has one day of work attendance per week and therefore wants to arrange for a substitute caregiver, they are not allowed to apply for respite care funding."

A farce, says Hütte-Schmitz. "Those who are regularly absent should use day care..."