Non-insurance benefits

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In the German statutory social insurance system, non- insurance benefits , also known as third-party benefits , are generally referred to as benefits that are not compatible with the purpose of the respective social insurance and therefore do not fall within its scope of responsibility and that have not been granted an adequate payment of contributions.

From a financial point of view, non-insurance benefits are not covered by social security contributions, but from the general budget of the state, e.g. B. through corresponding federal allocations to the social security funds. For this reason, federal allocations to the social security funds should generally be based on the expenditure for non-insurance benefits.

Statutory pension insurance

In the statutory pension insurance there are numerous non-insurance benefits. These include, for example, replacement periods , pensions under the Foreign Pension Act , credit periods , the upgrading of vocational training and non-cash benefits, the pension based on minimum income , pensions without deductions before reaching the statutory retirement age or special regulations in the new federal states. Some authors also include survivors' pensions .

While for the child-rearing periods recognized before July 1, 2014 , the pensions for this are paid out of tax revenues, the " mother's pension " taken into account from this date onwards , i.e. H. the second earnings point for children born before January 1, 1992, previously calculated from the premium income. According to the Social Advisory Council , “pensions from the parenting periods of children born before January 1, 1992 belong to the federal government's financial responsibility.” Accordingly, he advocates that “the planned expansion of the recognition of child parenting periods by providing the additional funds required for this from the Federal budget is financed. Above all, this would avoid the situation where the additional pension benefits for parental leave for children born before 1992, which would otherwise benefit groups of people not insured in the statutory pension insurance (self-employed, members of professional pension funds), would have to be financed solely by the employees subject to pension insurance and their employers. "

The expenditures for non-insurance benefits in the statutory pension insurance are estimated at 58–93 billion euros per year, depending on the definition. It is controversial to what extent these expenses of the pension insurance are covered by federal subsidies, so that they are not financed from the contributions of the insured, but from tax revenues as provided by law.

In the 18th electoral term (October 22, 2013 to September 6, 2017), the German Bundestag dealt with the question of the use of contributions to the statutory pension insurance for non-relevant purposes based on a public petition. "In the opinion of the Petitions Committee, sufficient answers have been found to the question of the proper financing of non-covered services. ... The Petitions Committee (recommends) that the petitions procedure be closed because the request has been granted". The scientific services of the Bundestag state that the view of science and politics to differentiate between contribution-covered and non-contribution-covered services is inconsistent, "depending on the aim of the contribution payment is to be pursued".

Statutory health insurance

In the statutory health insurance , a distinction must be made between income-side and expenditure-side non-insurance benefits.

Non-insurance benefits on the expenditure side include, for example, certain benefits in the event of pregnancy and maternity , prevention and health promotion benefits , child-related benefits or load regulations for dentures and co-payments . The expenditure for such services is estimated at around 4 billion euros.

On the income side, the entire applicable contribution assessment should be viewed as non-insurance, since the contributions are paid in different amounts depending on the income, but the benefits - with the exception of sickness benefit - are the same for everyone. According to the principle of equivalence in financial mathematics, it is therefore appropriate to finance health insurance benefits through income-independent, uniform contributions (flat rate per capita) .

If the current income-related assessment of contributions based on the solidarity principle is accepted , non-insurance components on the income side would still remain. In the case of income-related contributions, there are groups of people who are entitled to benefits but do not pay any contributions. One of the non- insurance components on the income side of health insurance is therefore above all the contribution-free co-insurance of adults. The contribution-free co-insurance of children is also rated by some authors as non-insurance for the same reason. However, this assessment is controversial.

For the scope of non-insurance benefits on the income side, reference is made to current model calculations by the Research Center for Generational Contracts.

Social long-term care insurance

In the social long-term care insurance , the same applies to the income side as to the statutory health insurance. Here too, income-related contributions are levied, but the benefits are granted in the same amount.

On the expenditure side, there are only a few non-insurance benefits, such as B. the promotion of the development and expansion of voluntary care or care courses for relatives and voluntary caregivers. Therefore, their size is irrelevant.

unemployment insurance

In unemployment insurance, there are different regulations for unemployment benefits in addition to non-insurance benefits , such as This includes, for example, the differentiation of the duration of benefits according to age and previous insurance period or the child allowance for unemployed people bringing up children. In addition, numerous employment promotion benefits are considered non-insurance. The integration contribution for unemployment insurance is also considered non-insurance.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. D. Fichte: Non-insurance benefits of the statutory pension insurance and their appropriate financing (PDF; 523 kB) , 2011
  2. ^ W. Schmähl: Task- adequate financing of social insurance through contributions and taxes , 2006
  3. http://www.socium.uni-bremen.de/veroeffnahmungen/arbeitspapiere/?publ=1188&page=1
  4. Opinion of the Social Advisory Council on the 2013 Pension Insurance Report. Retrieved August 12, 2017 . Item 49, 50
  5. a b c d e B. Raffelhüschen, S. Moog and J. Vatter: Faulty financing in the German social insurance (PDF; 1.6 MB) , 2011
  6. ^ Decision of the Petitions Committee of the German Bundestag, November 18, 2015, Pet 3-18-11-8216-001089, Financing of the Statutory Pension Insurance , accessed on June 26, 2019
  7. ^ [1] Non-contributory non-insurance benefits of the statutory pension insurance as an expression of the solidarity principle , Scientific Services of the German Bundestag, June 28, 2016, accessed on June 26, 2019
  8. Advisory Council on the Assessment of Overall Economic Development: Annual Report 2005/06, Chapter 5 (PDF; 5.3 MB)
  9. D. Fichte: Non-insurance benefits in statutory health insurance (PDF; 609 kB) , 2010