Care allowance for self-organized care

The care allowance serves to secure outpatient care. You can decide for yourself how to use it.

You will receive the long-term care benefit if you have at least a level 2 of care and receive care in a home setting. It does not matter whether you are being cared for by relatives, your partner, other volunteers, professional caregivers or an employed caregiver. The decisive factor is that you are able to provide care yourself in an appropriate manner.

The care allowance is intended to enable you to provide the respective caregiver with material recognition for the care and support provided with great commitment in the home environment.

Amount of the nursing allowance

Care degree 2	316 euros
Care Level 3	545 euros
Care level 4	728 euros
Care level 5	901 euros

The amount of the care allowance depends on the degree of need for care. The amounts in this list show the care allowance according to care degrees and refer to a calendar month.

If you receive care allowance, you are obligated to receive care advice at specified intervals in accordance with § 37 para. 3 SGB XI to claim.

This advice is given

• in care degrees 2 and 3 once every six months and
• in the care degrees 4 and 5 once a quarter.

The costs for this consultation according to § 37 para.3 SGB XI are completely taken over by the nursing care insurance.

Combining care allowance and care service

To ensure care that is tailored to your individual needs, you can combine the care allowance with benefits in kind (help from care services). In this case, the care allowance is reduced proportionately by the value of the benefits in kind received. This is called a combination benefit.

If you receive care abroad

The care allowance or proportional care allowance is also paid to you on a permanent basis if you reside in a member state of the European Union (EU), in a state of the European Economic Area (EEA) or in Switzerland.

EU members currently include: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.

The European Economic Area (EEA) comprises the member states of the European Union plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.

When staying in other countries, care allowance or pro rata care allowance continues to be paid for up to six weeks in a calendar year.

If only the care allowance is claimed, the recipients must also call up a counseling assignment, just like benefit recipients in the home country. The legally stipulated deadlines for the obligation to provide proof and the consequences – up to and including the discontinuation of the care allowance payment if proof of the consulting assignment is not provided – also apply in the event of a permanent stay abroad by the care allowance recipient in the countries described above.

As there are no facilities such as outpatient care services available in foreign countries, which are defined by contractual agreements, the consulting service in these countries can be provided by persons with a proven nursing competence, for example by a doctor or a nursing specialist. The necessary forms are available in the respective national language at the GKV-Spitzenverband.