How to protect your income when you are not able to work

In this article, Kerstin Brunner will show you how an inability to work will influence your income situation and what you can do to get money while you are not able to work.

Working is the only way to earn money, mostly. While most people are aware of this fact, they still don't protect their ability to work. But it's worth considering. Take a moment and think about it: how would you get money if you were suddenly unable to work? Do you see how you can quickly get yourself in trouble, if you are not prepared for an unexpected situation?

When an accident happens

Many people think that they are well protected when an accident happens due to public accident insurance. But this is not always true. What you need to know is that employees are only protected on their way to and from work, and during work hours.

Children and students are protected on the way to and from Kindergarten, school and university and while they are at the aforementioned places, while self-employed people are not really protected by the public accident insurance system.

If an accident happens in your spare time, you are not protected. It doesn’t matter if you are an employee, self-employed or a child. When you are doing sports, cleaning your home or helping your neighbours, all these activities are not insured by public accident insurance.

What will protect you 24/7 when it comes to accidents is private accident insurance. You have different options and topics to insure, for different tariffs.

Keep in mind that there is a difference between your health insurance and accident insurance. Having accident insurance should help to keep you flexible in case your life changes. For example, if you need to alter your home to make it wheelchair friendly or find yourself needing to pay for assistance.

Mandatory health insurance: Illness protection

Health insurance is mandatory in Germany. If you plan to relocate to Germany, you need to know about your health insurance options. Two different health insurance systems exist: the statutory system, also known as public health insurance, and the private health insurance system. Both systems work differently.

Public health insurance

Do you know that around 85% of the people living in Germany have public health insurance? This is a huge number of people. The typical characteristics of the public health insurance system are:

• What you pay in is not for personal use. The money goes to a shared pot for everyone.
• Each person who has public health insurance has the same treatments available to them. If you have public health insurance, you can negotiate an additional private health insurance contract for you and your family.
• The calculation of the amount you need to pay is based on your income. People without their own income are insured for free. Family members without their own incomes can be covered for free as well.

Private insurance

The private health insurance system is open for people who adhere to the following requirements: their income is over a specific threshold, and they are self-employed or allowed to get into the system via their parents’ past insurance. The typical characteristics of the private health insurance system are:

• Private health insurance is a private contract. Therefore, you can choose the treatments you want.
• Private health insurance companies are not obliged to insure everyone. They need a lot of information to evaluate you.
• The calculation of your premium is based on your age, health status and the treatments you want to be insured for.

Which system is more suitable for you depends on your personal situation and should be discussed with an expert.

Cover for caregiving

Unexpected care needs can always pop up. And they come with a lot of uncertainty. Who will be the caregiver? Who can spend their time and money to be one or hire one? In Germany, we have “Pflegepflichtversicherung”, which every health insured person pays for. However, the benefits offered by this public insurance are capped. For most caregiving situations, more money is needed.

A form of private care insurance is therefore highly recommended if you wish to be more flexible and make your own decisions about where and how you want to be cared for.

Did you know that over 80 percent of people who are in a care situation get care at home from their relatives or a professional caregiver? Only 20 percent stay in a care home.

Occupational disability (Berufsunfähigkeit)

Whether due to an illness or accident or something else, many people find themselves unable to work. Some people might need time to recover and then be able to return to work, but some may never be able to work again. If you pay into the Deutsche Rentenversicherung, a part of your payment goes towards the “Erwerbsminderungsrente”. To get money out of this pot, if you are unable to work, you need to have contributed to it for a minimum of five years.

For this reason, it might make sense to have a private occupational disability insurance policy as well. When you have occupational disability insurance, you receive money while you are not able to work. Keep in mind that you need to take care of taxes and health insurance on your own. 

Cover for bereavement

We all wish to have a wonderful and fulfilling life and to get old. But people can die unexpectedly and so many wish for their family to be protected. They want to make sure their surviving partner’s financial future is secure, as well as their children’s education or the family’s mortgage.

For all aforementioned cases, it is possible to have insurance called term life insurance. With this type of insurance, you will have a contract that covers death and, in some cases, also severe diseases like cancer.

As you can see, there are a lot of possibilities to protect your income while you are not able to work. You don’t need to find suitable solutions on your own. If you are looking for support to protect you and your family from different issues, Kerstin Brunner is the expert you can get in contact with. Get more information on Kerstin Brunner’s homepage or on her LinkedIn.