Respite and short-time care

Respite care

If you should find yourself momentarily unable to provide home care due to an illness or other unforeseeable reasons, you can apply for respite care at your respective nursing care insurance.

Respite care can be ambulant or residential; it can be covered by a privately owned care service or provided by acquaintances not related to you. The decision is yours. The costs will be covered by the nursing care insurance of the person in need of care, even when respite care is provided by an acquaintance. Please check before hand with the respective nursing care insurance to make sure all requirements are fulfilled.

You can claim up to 42 calendar days of respite care per annum during which you are entitled to up to 1.612€ of benefits to finance the respite care. You don’t have to claim the 42 day consecutively, you can arrange them to suit your needs. The only requirement is that your relative in need of care has been granted a care level of 0 with a certified limited everyday competence or a higher care level and you have been providing home care for the last 6 months.

During your holiday or your recovery from an illness your contributions to your retirement insurance are covered through the nursing care insurance of the person in need of care. All your other social insurances will continue unaltered as well.

Short-term care

Short-term care is the temporary relocation of people in need of care to a nursing home. You can claim short-term care for up to 28 day a year. It is also subsidised with 1.612€. By combining it with the amount of benefits for respite care you can double this amount to up to 3.224€ if you have not made use of you entitlement to respite care yet.

For example, short-term care can be claimed subsequently to a hospital stay for the time when a long-term care solution is yet to be arranged. It can also be claimed to enable you to go on a stress-free holiday.

The difference to respite care is that short-term care may only be provided in a nursing home. There are also no temporal restrictions, such as that you have to be providing care for at least 6 months to be eligible. It can be claimed immediately. Just as with respite care you are free to choose the time when you want to claim it.

This means you are entitled to a combined 8 weeks of cover care, but please mind the different requirements regarding respite care and short-term care to choose the best option for your current situation.