Federal Constitutional Court demands relief for families with children in long-term care insurance

Karlsruhe
The Federal Constitutional Court is calling on politicians to change the contribution rates for parents from the second child onwards in statutory long-term care insurance. Parents currently pay the same contributions to social long-term care insurance, regardless of the number of children.
According to the decision of the Federal Constitutional Court, parents must be relieved in the statutory long-term care insurance according to the number of their children. Although the contribution rate has been 3.05 percent of gross income for parents since the beginning of 2022 and 3.4 percent for childless people, it remains unchanged from the second child onwards. From the point of view of the judges, however, this does not go far enough and the communication on the judgment states: “The same contribution burden on parents regardless of the number of children is not constitutionally justified”. For this reason, the Federal Constitutional Court obliges the legislator to present a new regulation by July 31, 2023.
On the other hand, further constitutional complaints reject the decision of April 7, 2022 (file number 1 BvL 3/18, 1 BvR 2824/17, 1 BvR 2257/16, 1 BvR 717/16), which also included the assessment of the contribution to the statutory pension insurance and related to health insurance. The Federal Social Court had already declared in several judgments that there are no differences in the contribution rates between people with and without children. Several parents defended themselves against these decisions with constitutional complaints, supported by the Family Association of Catholics in the Archdiocese of Freiburg.
Finally, according to the opinion of the First Senate, chaired by Court President Stephan Harbarth, the statutory pension insurance system recognizes child-rearing periods. With regard to statutory health insurance, the judges emphasized that the insured benefited “to a considerable extent” from the services during childhood and adolescence.
Editor Mrs. Maiga