Parents are entitled to a reduction in their nursing care insurance contributions if they have children. We explain the rules.
On January 1, 1995, the legislature introduced long-term care insurance, which is financed through proportional contributions. All insured persons, whether statutory or private, are subject to this insurance requirement. However, depending on the number of children you have, you can minimize your payments.
Every employee or self-employed person must pay contributions to nursing care insurance. By taking children into account, you will be relieved of this burden:
You only receive deductions if you have more than one child. The maximum child age is 25. If a child dies, you will continue to benefit from the deduction. However, only until the child turns 25. For employees, the deduction only applies to the employee share.
In order to continue to finance nursing care insurance, the legislature increased the usual contribution rate from 3.05 to 3.4 percent on July 1, 2023. According to a decision of the Federal Constitutional Court on April 7, 2022, the contribution rate is based on the number of children. This is intended to relieve the burden on families with many children.
If you are older than 23 and have no children, your contribution surcharge has increased from 0.35 to 0.6 percent. As of July 1, 2023, you will pay four percent. If you have children, proof is required.
All persons who have not yet reached the age of 23 are exempt from the additional payments. This also applies to all members whose date of birth is before January 1, 1940. Those doing military or community service and those receiving citizen’s allowance are also exempt.
The contribution surcharge is not only levied on the usual wage. You are also required to pay if you receive other income subject to contributions. This could be pension payments from the statutory pension fund or from your former employer.
Basically, as a parent you pay a total contribution to nursing care insurance of 3.4 percent. This is reduced by 0.25 percentage points for each child. If you have at least two children, you pay 3.15 percent until they are 25 years old. This rule applies to a maximum of five children. In this case you receive a flat rate discount of one percent. So you pay 2.4 percent. After the end of the child-rearing phase, you as a parent pay the contribution rate of 3.4 percent again.
