Biometric Risks

Disability Risks

Disability risks represent a considerable risk group. It is often the case that the physical or psychological constitution of a person has suffered due to an accident or illness in such a way that he can no longer call up his previous mental or physical potential for the foreseeable future or never at all. Then one generally speaks of disability, impairment, need for care, etc. We would like to mention the most important risks here:

Occupational disability

If, due to illness, accident, loss of strength or other causes, you are no longer able to work more than 50% (as a rule) of your last job for at least 6 months, then this is known as occupational disability.

The insurance product to cover this risk is the Disability insurance .

An agreed monthly disability pension is paid here when an occupational disability occurs.

Defined serious illnesses

Getting a serious illness puts many insured persons and their relatives to a hard test. Not infrequently, the consequences of such serious illnesses are time off from work or even loss of job and thus a financial risk. But not only compensation plays a role. The extra money is usually used to pay for costs that health insurers do not usually cover, such as special treatment methods, alternative healing methods, treatment by a chief physician, a necessary home remodelling or time off work.

The insurance product to cover such risks is usually the Dread Disease insurance. Here you can find a short explanatory video!

Compared to occupational disability insurance, a fixed one-time sum is paid, which is also tax-free.

Loss of basic abilities

Basic abilities are defined skills of movement such as walking, climbing stairs, standing, senses such as seeing, hearing, smelling, using aids such as driving a car, riding a bicycle and so on. If one or more of these basic abilities are lost, this often also results in the loss of a job, and this is also accompanied by financial losses.

The insurance product to cover this risk is Basic abilities insurance.

Here, an agreed monthly occupational disability pension is paid in the event of loss of a basic ability.

General complete Disability

If, due to illness or an accident, you have such severe physical and/or mental impairments that you can no longer be available to the labour market, this is called general complete disability. As a rule, insurers follow the legal regulations. Here, it must be proven that one can no longer perform any activity for longer than 3 hours per day.

The insurance product to cover this risk is General Disability insurance.

Here, a contractually agreed monthly pension is paid in the event of incapacity for work.

Need for long-term care

In December 2019, 4.13 million people were in need of long-term care in Germany. The intensity of the need for care is divided into the so-called care degrees 1-5. The risk of needing long-term care can not only affect older people. Younger people can also become in need of long-term care due to certain strokes of fate. It is also important to say that, as a rule, the costs for a nursing home or home care continue to rise and the money from the statutory long-term care insurance is hardly sufficient. This may mean high additional payments by the affected person and even in some cases close relatives such as the children!

The insurance product to cover this risk is the private supplementary long-term care insurance.

Depending on the contractual agreement, a daily nursing allowance or a nursing pension can be paid.

Accident Risk

The accident risk is probably one of the best-known risks. As a pillar of the welfare state, Germany has statutory accident insurance. For the most part, employees are covered against so-called occupational accidents. An accident is defined as follows: "An accident occurs when the insured person involuntarily suffers a health impairment as a result of an event that suddenly affects the body from the outside". This already shows that the term accident covers fewer possible damage scenarios, as illness or loss of strength are not insured.

The insurance product to cover this risk is Accident insurance.

Depending on the contractual agreement, a one-time disability sum or a monthly accident pension can be paid.

Incapacity for work

This is one of the most common risks and almost all of us have been unable to work at some time. As a rule, people do not even notice this as a risk, as most people are unable to work for a maximum of 6 weeks. During this time, the employer continues to pay wages according to the law. As a rule, people only become aware of the issue when they are unable to work for a longer period of time; there is a threat of loss of income, as the legal right to continued payment of wages ceases after 6 weeks. In this case, the employer's missing salary must be replaced by other insurances. Those with statutory health insurance have a claim through the health insurance fund but beware, you get paid less than your net salary and thus have a gap. 

The insurance product to cover this risk is the daily sickness allowance insurance.

Depending on the contractual agreement, a daily allowance can be paid out monthly.

How to calculate the gap!

In the following table, we have summarised the insurance solutions for the respective biometric risks for you and sorted them according to the most important aspects. However, all these overviews and explanations are no substitute for sound advice. Please do not hesitate to contact us. We will take the time to discuss your personal insurance mix.