Statutory disability insurance under statutory pension insurance
Since 2001, there has no longer been any statutory occupational disability insurance
Since 2001 there has been only a “Reduced earning capacity pension” (Erwerbsminderungsrente)
Statutory pension insurance can refer to other professions
More than 42% of applications are rejected
To be entitled to state protection, you must have paid into the statutory pension insurance scheme for at least 60 months in your work life
How is it checked whether I am unable to work?
After 6 months of sick leave, whether you are incapacitated for work can be checked. The state checks this differently from occupational disability insurance.
With statutory cover, the statutory pension insurance checks your state of health. They check whether you could still be employable somewhere in the German labor market. They don’t care if it’s another profession than what you’re doing right now. They don’t care about your previous experience, your education, or your annual income. If they find anything they could put you in they would either do that or give you half protection.
If, according to the statutory pension insurance, you can work between 3 and 6 hours a day in any occupation, you are considered partially disabled
In this scenario, you would receive an average payout of 17% of your last income
That means that more than 80% of your regular income would be missing
More than 50% of applications are considered partially disabled, so most people will only get 17% of their last income
If you were no longer able to work at all or less than 3 hours per day, you would receive the full coverage of 34% of your last income
Here still almost 70% of your regular income would be missing
The average payment from the statutory pension insurance is around 800€ gross!
We can all agree on the fact that these payouts are far from enough. That’s why the statutory pension insurance is recommending additional disability insurance to protect your income! Find out more about occupational disability insurance here. With occupational disability insurance, you can cover up to 80% of your net income, and you can tailor your protection to your life situation to cover the amount that you’d need in case of disability.