Allocation U1

The U1 levy in Germany is a compulsory financial contribution from certain employers to the solidarity-based financing of compensation for employer expenses in the event of continued wages being paid to employees in the event of illness . Those employers who generally do not employ more than 30 eligible persons take part in the pay-as-you-go system. If the participating employers have to continue to pay their employees in the event of illness, the health insurance companies will reimburse them on request from the allocation between 40% and 80% of the expenses. The amount of the reimbursement rate depends on the premium rate chosen by the employer for the respective health insurance company. It is therefore a continued payment insurance for smaller employers.

This so-called U1 procedure, regulated in the Expenditure Compensation Act, is intended to prevent smaller employers from being financially overloaded by fulfilling their employees' continued payment claims.

In the case of participating employers, the procedure applies to all employees, including apprentices and privately insured employees.

Benefits to the participating employer

In the event that an employee falls ill, the company can in principle have the contribution fund reimbursed up to 80% of the remuneration to be continued in accordance with the Continued Remuneration Act and up to 80% of the employer's contributions due ( Section 1 AAG). However, the responsible health insurance company can limit this statutory reimbursement amount through provisions of the articles of association ( Section 9 (2) AAG). Frequently encountered articles of association of this kind are:

Setting a lower reimbursement rate,
The restriction of the reimbursable continued payment of remuneration to the assessment ceiling of the pension insurance (in view of the fact that the remuneration is only used up to this assessment ceiling to calculate the contribution contributions), and
The stipulation that the reimbursement amount calculated from the continued payment of wages covers the employer's contributions.
The amount of the contribution rate (reduced, normal or increased)

The opportunity costs for the loss of work are not taken into account.

Obligation to participate

Employers who generally - excluding those employed for their vocational training - do not employ more than 30 employees must take part in the pay-as-you-go system. According to Section 3 Paragraph 1 Clause 5 AAG, severely disabled people in the sense of SGB IX are not counted. Employees who are not employed full-time are taken into account as follows according to Section 3 (1) sentence 6 AAG:

than 0.25 employees with a weekly working time of no more than 10 hours,
than 0.50 employees with a weekly working time of no more than 20 hours,
than 0.75 employees with a weekly working time of no more than 30 hours.

For example, if a company employs an employee for 5 hours per week and an employee for 25 hours per week, this is 1.0 employee for the purposes of this provision. The fact that both employees only work 30 hours a week (and therefore 75% of a full-time job) is just as disregarded as the fact that two people work in the company.

An employer who did not employ more than 30 employees for a period of at least eight calendar months in the past year (the first of each month is used as the basis for calculation) must participate in the equalization procedure for the entire current year. If the company was founded in the previous year and the number of employees did not exceed 30 for most of the calendar months, there is an entitlement to compensation.

Assessment of contributions

The contributions are set as a percentage of the remuneration subject to pension insurance (contribution rate) and are to be borne by the employer alone. In the case of employees who are exempt from or are exempt from pension insurance, the relevant remuneration is based on which the pension insurance contributions would have to be calculated in the event of mandatory pension insurance. One-off payments are not taken into account when calculating the contribution, as they are not taken into account in the reimbursement. The contributions are proven with the total social security contributions and are due with them. The assessment ceiling for general pension insurance continues to apply.

The amount of the contribution rates are set annually by the health insurance companies in their statutes; for example, in the case of the large insurance companies (each with over a million insured persons) in 2019 (2018) between 0.9% (0.9%) and 4.1% ( 3.9%) depending on the reimbursement rate from 50% to 80%. The reimbursement rates in 2019 are between 40% and 80%.

AOK reimbursement rate of	50%	55%	60%	65%	70%	75%	80%
AOK Baden-Württemberg	1.40%	-	2.00%	-	2.30%	-	3.55%
AOK Bavaria	1.10%	-	1.60%	-	2.00%	-	3.10%
AOK Bremen / Bremerhaven	1.70%	-	2.30%	-	3.60%	-	-
AOK Hessen	1.60%	-	2.20%	-	2.40%	-	4.10%
AOK Lower Saxony	-	2.00%	-	2.60%	-	3.50%	-
AOK Nordost (Berlin, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania)	1.80%	-	-	-	2.50%	-	-
AOK Northwest (Schleswig-Holstein, Westphalia-Lippe)	1.70%	-	2.30%	-	2.80%	-	3.90%
AOK Plus (Saxony, Thuringia)	2.00%	-	-	2.70%	-	-	-
AOK Rhineland-Palatinate / Saarland	1.50%	-	2.20%	-	2.80%	-	3.50%
AOK Rhineland / Hamburg ,	1.60%	-	2.10%	-	3.90%	-	-
AOK Saxony-Anhalt	2.30%	-	3.00%	-	-	-	3.80%

Jurisdiction

The settlement proceedings are at

the local health insurance companies,
the guild health insurance funds,
the company health insurance funds,
the substitute funds, and the
Deutsche Rentenversicherung Knappschaft Bahn-See as
- Miners health insurance provider,
- Seafarers' health insurance carriers,
- Mini job center

carried out.

The health insurance company responsible for the equalization procedure is the health insurance company with which the employee is insured. If the employee is not insured in the statutory health insurance, the responsibility is based on the payment of the other social security contributions. Exception: In the case of marginally employed persons (EUR 450 jobs and short-term employment), the compensation procedures of the mini-job center are relevant.