Decisive for the contribution amount of an occupational disability insurance is also the Job: Most insurers ordnen applicants into four professional groups. The higher that Risks, the more expensive the contribution.

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One in five employees becomes disabled

Time and again, consumer associations, insurance companies and experts point out that private insurance against occupational disability is one of the most important insurance policies. Therefore, I present here a detailed series of articles on the topic online.

The fact is that one in five employees and one in three workers leave the job before they reach the age of retirement because of their professional or occupational disability. The main causes are cardiac and circulatory diseases, orthopedic impairments, diseases of the nerves or psyche, tumors and internal diseases.

Common reasons for disability

Depending on the occupational group, the causes are Age and gender: Psychological reasons are the most common trigger for those under the age of 39 and employees. For workers and in the nursing professions, physical stress at work plays a major role in disease type statistics. They are often affected by skeletal, muscular or connective tissue diseases that lead to incapacity to work.

Contrary to many guess, accidents play only a subordinate role. A pure accident insurance is considerably cheaper than a guarantee against disability, but it does not offer sufficient protection against the restriction of the ability to work.

The distribution of causes by gender:
Men:Women:
Diseases of the skeleton / muscles / connective tissue18,4%17,8%
Diseases of the circulatory system14,7%6,3%
Diseases of the digestive system / metabolic diseases5,1%3,4%
Diseases of the respiratory organs3,0%2,0%
neoplasms13,5%15,6%
Diseases of the genitourinary system1,0%0,9%
mental illness27,6%38,4%
Diseases of the nervous system5,9%6,9%
other illnesses10,8%8,7%

What are the risk groups?

  1. Among the occupational group 1 with low risk factors, doctors, architects or office workers are examples.
  2. The group 2, normal, includes, for example, bank specialists or salespeople.
  3. The occupational group 3 with a higher degree of risk is usually classified as nurses, restaurant owners or crane operators.

As occupations with particularly high risk, group 4, concrete builders, bricklayers, machine locksmiths. In principle, physically active persons have to reckon with higher premiums than head workers.

Some occupations are often only insured to a limited extent. Some risk groups, such as craftsmen or teachers, have a hard time obtaining contracts that go beyond the 60. Year. Special insurers, such as roofers or scaffolding builders, sometimes demand high risk surcharges. Photographers, photo-models, artists often fall entirely out of the insurance, because a professional disability is difficult to verifiable.

Which profession belongs to which group?

However, which profession belongs to which group can be very different for the individual insurance companies. So look for one Insurance, which rates your profession favorably. Clarify exactly which profession you insure. Anyone who has unknowingly insured the wrong profession violates the insurer's acceptance policy and jeopardizes their insurance cover, since the insurer can contest or withdraw from the contract for breach of the pre-contractual disclosure obligation.

Some insurers state in your contract that you career change or having to report taking up a high-risk hobby so that the risk can then be reassessed.n

When the living conditions change

And even if circumstances change (eg marriages, births, income growth or property acquisition), some insurance companies require a new health check. This can all lead to increases in contributions or less favorable conditions.

Failure to do so will result in the loss of the insurance cover. However, good insurance companies do without the notification of such changes. The contract may then be continued on the same terms.

Attention self-employed

Self-employed persons must prove to the insurance company that their activity regularly generates corresponding revenues. They usually demonstrate this by an average income of the last three years, because it is important that no excess or severity of work is insured.

Anyone who has just started their own business can initially only insure a certain pension amount, usually between 500 and 1000 euros per month. Important: Take into account later salary increases as well as the Effect of inflation, agree on a so-called “dynamics” for this. Then, with the insurance contribution, the insured disability pension will automatically increase over the years.

In case of unemployment

If you become unemployed, you should continue your disability protection so that you continue to be entitled to benefits. In addition, it is more expensive because of the higher age, or pre-existing conditions, and it may even be impossible to conclude a professional disability insurance again later.

State that an interest-free deferral of contributions is also possible upon request, without the insurance cover being lost. This is important if you temporarily do not Income to have.

Independent rating

The Company Morgen und Morgen independently analyzes and evaluates disability insurance conditions, applications and internal data. Insurance policies rated five stars here meet all the important criteria for optimal disability insurance.

Ask You should therefore look for appropriate ratings, such as yours Adviser. The results are regularly published in the business press. Stiftung Warentest also regularly evaluates occupational disability insurance.

Please take this into consideration when submitting applications

When filing for insurance, do not tell if you have already applied elsewhere for applications that have been rejected. If the insurance asks, that does not speak for them.

And: Make sure that the application forms only ask for diseases and complaints that do not last longer than five years (for hospital inpatient stays not longer than 10 years).

§ 41 clarify

Clarify whether the insurer waives the application of § 41 of the Insurance Contract Act. This would allow the insurance company to retroactively withdraw from the contract or to increase the premium if there was already an increased risk at the start of the contract but that you were not aware of it and that you did not specify it.

Important: Exclude termination and premium right for this reason or limit this right to at least five years.