Am I covered by accident insurance when volunteering in Germany?

What cover while volunteering costs and what it pays when it matters.

German statutory accident insurance (gesetzliche Unfallversicherung) is set out in Book VII of the Social Code (SGB VII). It names several groups of volunteers who are protected automatically. Nobody has to register you, you pay nothing, and your nationality does not matter. The responsible body is the accident fund (Unfallkasse) or employers' liability insurance association (Berufsgenossenschaft) of the organisation.

This includes unpaid helpers in aid organisations such as the volunteer fire brigade, the Red Cross, lifesaving services or the Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW), including training. It also covers volunteers in health care and welfare work, volunteers for municipalities, federal states and other public bodies, and for churches and their institutions.

Most volunteers in Germany are active in registered clubs (eingetragener Verein, e.V.), and that is exactly where automatic cover is missing. Elected board members, treasurers or sports officers and their deputies are only covered if the club registers them voluntarily with the VBG (Verwaltungs-Berufsgenossenschaft). The club must be recognised as non-profit.

For some years appointed volunteers can also be insured, meaning members who take on prominent tasks on behalf of the board, such as referees, judges or project leaders. If the club does nothing, those affected can register themselves.

What club members do because of their membership is not covered by statutory accident insurance. This includes work days required by the statutes or a resolution, helping at the club fete and the sport itself.

An exception can apply to work that goes well beyond the usual. For renovations of the clubhouse, for example, the Federal Ministry of Labour gives as a guideline: not set as a duty in the statutes and more than two hours per session. The accident insurer decides case by case, and disputes are common.

Once the accident is recognised, the accident fund or association pays for treatment and rehabilitation without co-payments, injury benefit (Verletztengeld) while you cannot work and, from a 20 percent reduction in earning capacity, a pension. The direct way to and from the activity is covered too.

For pensioners without earned income a notional minimum income is assumed. For 2021 the Federal Ministry of Labour calculated an injury pension of EUR 263.20 a month at a 20 percent reduction in the western federal states. The old age pension is not set against it if the accident happens after retirement.

Many federal states have taken out private group policies for volunteers, and sports associations have done the same for their clubs. They usually apply only as a back-up, when no other cover exists, and pay fixed sums for disability or death.

These policies are basic cover, not a substitute for statutory accident insurance with rehabilitation and pension. Ask your club or association which policy exists and what sums it pays.

If you only help with the fire brigade or the parish, you do not need your own policy for that. Private accident insurance (private Unfallversicherung) is worth it for volunteers in clubs without voluntary registration, for people who do sport and for everyone who wants to protect their free time.

It pays for permanent disability according to a fixed table of body parts (Gliedertaxe), whether the accident happens while volunteering, at home or on holiday. For an office job it costs about EUR 60 to 180 a year for a EUR 100,000 basic sum, considerably more in older age.