Disability Insurance: Social Security Sick Pay & Tax Benefits

Time and again, consumer associations, insurance companies and experts point out the importance of protection against occupational disability: occupational disability is much more common than many think. And the benefits of the statutory social insurance are rather modest.

Why protection against occupational disability makes sense

Private insurance against occupational disability is one of the most important types of insurance. But before you graduate, there are a few things you should definitely pay attention to. My post on the subject, which you can access here, will help you find the right one for you prevention a DAK Bungalow.

He tells you what counts as occupational disability, which benefits Health insurance and take over the accident insurance in the event of occupational disability or disability, what you should look out for with private occupational disability insurance and what alternative pension options there are.

Secured by the state?

Perhaps you would like to object: “I'm covered by the state”. This is only partially true, because the state has significantly reduced its disability benefits.

Especially self-employed persons, who are usually not covered by an employer or by state pension insurance, I can pay a private disability insurance. In order to make sure that you do what you want, you must pay attention to some points when signing the contract.

• Definition of occupational disability: You are disabled if you can no longer work in your actual job.
• Definition Disability: You are not able to work if you can not work at all.

Please note that the statutory pension insurance and private insurance companies use different criteria for determining occupational disability, which will be described later in this series of articles.

What does the statutory health insurance

For longer illnesses you can get from the statutory health insurance 70 percent of their income of the last twelve months.

The sick pay is paid for the same illness in three years but for a maximum of 78 weeks. When the health insurance company pays, depends on the rate on which you are insured. In the normal tariff you have the right to sickness benefit from the seventh week of illness in case of illness.

Advanced health insurance

If you want to receive sick pay from the third or fourth week of illness (for self-employed people who cannot receive wage compensation from their employer in the first few weeks of their illness useful be), you have to pay an increased contribution of up to 18,8%.

The contribution levels and also the achievements are very different. Ask them at different cash desks. If your own health insurance requires too much, it is worth a change. If you are insured with a reduced rate, you are not entitled to any health insurance.

Private health insurance

In addition, you can protect yourself against the loss of earnings in case of illness with a private sick leave insurance. If you are legally insured, you should compare the private and statutory funds, as conditions of the statutory funds are generally better.

The tariffs for daily sickness allowance of 50 euros from the 15th day of illness range between 25 and 125 euros per month, depending on the age of entry and gender. The lower the daily sickness benefit to be paid and the later the start of payment, the cheaper it will be. Health insurance benefits are only available for temporary illnesses. As soon as it turns out that it is a permanent occupational disability, not a temporary illness, health insurance usually stops paying.

However, one should not miss the deadlines: The district court of Coburg dismissed the complaint of an insured person who was Insurance 6300 euros daily sickness benefit. Reason for the lawsuit: The plaintiff had failed to notify the insurance company of her incapacity to work in a timely manner Vorlage medical certificates and thus violate their contractual obligations. This led to the insurer being released from liability. Conclusion: Always keep to the deadlines.

Supplementary disability insurance: Beware of mental illness

Anyone wishing to take out additional insurance against incapacity to work must accept that mental illnesses can lead to exclusion clauses. A corresponding judgment has now been made by the Karlsruhe Higher Regional Court. Because: Such exclusion clauses also apply in other branches of insurance and therefore do not disadvantage the insured inappropriately. The Federal Court of Justice has also already considered such exclusion clauses to be effective.

Pension insurance and disability

If you have been covered by statutory old-age pension insurance for at least five years (including child rearing, retirement, retirement, spousal employment, substitute periods), you have been compulsorily insured for at least three years for the last five years prior to your incapacity for work , you are entitled to the following services:

Disability benefits:

• If you are born before the 02.01.1961, you will receive a disability pension equal to half the reduction in earning capacity (if you are less than six hours a day for health reasons (proof required by the doctor) in your or any other reasonable occupation can work.
• If you were born after this date or only entered the pension insurance scheme after 2000, you can only get a statutory income reduction. This means that for health reasons you can work less than three hours per day (full income reduction), or between three and six hours (half a job reduction), no matter what profession and regardless of whether a job is actually available.

Calculation example:

In the case of a gross income of 5250 Euro that is subject to pension insurance, the half-pension loss 16% of the current income, ie 840 Euro, is the full invalidity rights of 31%, ie 1630 Euro.

The pension is only paid from the seventh month of the reduction in earning capacity. Unlike private disability insurance, a state disability pension that you receive before the age of 66 reduces your old-age pension – by 0,3 percent for each month of earlier pension payments, but by a maximum of 10,8 percent.

The retirement or occupational retirement pension is taxed like the retirement pension. Every three years, it is checked whether you are not able to work again. Only if you have not been able to work for nine years, you will get a permanent reduction.

Statutory accident insurance

The statutory trade association or accident insurance that you have taken out privately pays a disability pension - but only after work-related accidents. Accident insurance for the private sector, on the other hand, only pays for accidents that occur in the privacy happened. The trade associations also pay for certain statutory occupational diseases.

Rürup pension and tax benefits

For example, you can take out disability insurance as a package with a Rürup pension, private life insurance or pension insurance, each including supplementary disability insurance. In Combination with the Rürüp pension, the contribution payments are tax-privileged. You can save a correspondingly large amount of capital, for example with fixed-income securities, Funds or shares.

Compared to the Kombipaketen it offers often more favorable conditions and is considered as more powerful - despite the control advantage of some combination kits.

Riester contracts, on the other hand, can be misused for money laundering. In 2005 and 2006, insurance companies filed 35 suspicious transaction reports under the Money Laundering Act. The ads were checked, but in no case was the suspicion confirmed. However: Theoretically, abuse is actually possible. A particularly high one Risks mainly occurs with high cash deposits or one-off payments. The thresholds of the Money Laundering Act are only exceeded if the annual premiums exceed 1000 euros or a single premium exceeds 2500 euros.