🏦 Pension insurance for carers
In brief
If you care for a relative without pay and for a certain minimum number of hours per week, you count under pension law as a "non-professional carer". The care insurance fund then pays contributions to the statutory pension insurance for you – without you having to pay anything in yourself. This can build up noticeable pension entitlements, especially if you reduce your employment because of the care.
Step by step
- Document the extent of careRecord how many hours per week you actually care for your relative – the requirement is regularly care of at least 10 hours per week, spread over at least 2 days.
- Submit the form to the care insurance fundYour relative's care insurance fund provides its own form for this, in which the amount of time spent on care is declared.
- Note the employment limitYour own employment alongside the care must not exceed a certain weekly amount if the care insurance fund's contribution payment is to continue.
- Check your pension accountHave the Deutsche Rentenversicherung confirm regularly that the care periods have been correctly recorded as contribution periods.
Deadlines
- Contribution payment by the care insurance fund requires that you provide the care on a non-professional basis (i.e. not as a paid care worker) and for a certain minimum number of hours – occasional or very minor support is not enough.
- If you also work above a certain weekly hours limit, the contribution payment can lapse or be reduced – the exact threshold must be requested from the responsible pension insurance institution, as no official primary source with the exact value could be checked for this.
- Contribution payment is tied to your relative's care level (generally at least care level 2); for care level 1 different, more limited rules apply.
In depth · legal basis, figures and practice – for advisers and professionals
Legal basis (§ 3 Satz 1 Nr. 1a SGB VI)
People who provide non-professional care for a person in need of care with at least care level 2 in their home environment belong to the group of "other insured persons" of the statutory pension insurance. Since 1 April 1995, the responsible care insurance fund (or private compulsory long-term care insurance) has paid pension insurance contributions for these carers without the carer having to pay contributions themselves.
Time commitment
According to the available sources, the requirement is regularly care activity of at least 10 hours per week, spread over at least 2 days. The amount of pension insurance contributions paid depends on the care level and the extent of the care activity, and on whether care is provided alone or together with other carers.
Relationship to your own employment
If self-employment or employment is pursued alongside care above a certain weekly hours limit, the entitlement to contribution payment can lapse. The exact threshold could not be conclusively verified in this research against a single official primary source and should be requested from the Deutsche Rentenversicherung in the individual case.
Interaction with family care leave
Anyone who reduces their own employment to at least 15 hours because of family care leave often operates in a range in which both their own employment and the care insurance fund's contribution payment become relevant – here too, an individual check by the Deutsche Rentenversicherung is recommended.
A question about your situation that this page does not answer? Write to us or use the contact form – we will tell you which office is responsible and what to bring. Free of charge, without individual legal advice.