Germany’s Social Organizations Welcome Plan to Support Caregivers Financially
Germany’s social organizations have welcomed the government’s plan to financially support caregivers by introducing a caregiver allowance. The Sozialverband Deutschland (SoVD) has called for the introduction of a compensation for caregiving time, at least equivalent to the parental allowance, to ensure that caregivers are financially better secured during a break from work.
The SoVD’s chair, Michaela Engelmeier, emphasized that a flat-rate model would not be fair to the social reality of many caregivers and that a socially graded solution with a clear upper and lower limit, based on previous income, is necessary. The goal is to enable people to care for their loved ones without worrying about their financial existence.
According to Engelmeier, caregivers provide the majority of care services in Germany and without their tireless efforts, the care of hundreds of thousands of people with care needs would simply collapse. Therefore, it is urgently necessary to improve their situation structurally.
The Paritätischer Wohlfahrtsverband also welcomed the idea of a caregiver allowance, suggesting that it should be designed analogously to the parental allowance, with a proportion of 65% of the last net income, a minimum of 300 and a maximum of 1,800 euros.
Markus Sutorius, a lawyer for the BIVA-Pflegeschutzbund, warned that a loss of income for caregivers due to caregiving is a significant risk of poverty and that the replacement allowance should reflect this, for example, by using a medium income as a basis.
On the other hand, Jürgen Wasem, a health economist from the University of Duisburg-Essen, expressed concerns about the concept of a caregiver allowance, stating that it could set incentives for reducing working hours, even though a combination of care and work is possible. In times of a skilled labor shortage, such measures are not economically sensible. He also fears that the allowance could create new injustices, as it could be linked to the previous income, leading to questionable redistribution effects and unequal treatment of households with care recipients.