How high should your BU benefit be in Germany?

Guide figures from published tariff examples, term until age 67, with the state benefit for comparison.

A percentage does not know your rent. Write down four blocks: housing with service charges (Nebenkosten) and electricity, insurance and contributions, living costs such as food, car, phone and clothing, and finally loans and instalments. Divide annual premiums by twelve so they do not disappear from the sum.

Then subtract what falls away with working life: commuting, canteen meals, work clothes, training. And add what appears instead: co-payments at the pharmacy, trips to doctors, sometimes help in the household. What is left is your real monthly need.

First comes sick pay (Krankengeld) for a maximum of 78 weeks in most cases. After that the statutory reduced earning capacity pension (Erwerbsminderungsrente) may apply, but only for general loss of earning capacity: the full pension if you can no longer work three hours a day in any job, half of it for three to under six hours. Whether you can still do your own profession is irrelevant.

The amount is sobering. Pensions actually paid averaged around EUR 1,091 a month in 2025, and you need five qualifying years plus, as a rule, three years of compulsory contributions in the last five. If you arrived in Germany recently, you may not reach that at all, so plan with zero. Beyond that, only count what is certain: a partner income that covers the rent on its own, or assets you do not need for something else.

The table shows the 70 to 80 percent band and the premium that goes with it as a guide figure. Treat it as a starting point for your own calculation.

Anyone with children, a house or a running loan ends up at the upper end. Anyone living alone in a rented flat without instalments can manage with less.

Health and long-term care insurance continue, and they are paid out of the BU benefit. If you stay in the statutory system as a voluntary member (freiwillig versichert), you carry both halves yourself, roughly 19 to 20 percent in total. A benefit of EUR 2,000 shrinks to about EUR 1,600. Privately insured people keep paying their full premium. No rule of thumb includes this.

The second point is time. A fixed benefit without an increase clause loses value: EUR 1,500 is worth only about EUR 1,115 after fifteen years at two percent inflation. A benefit increase (Leistungsdynamik) raises the payment while it is being paid, usually by 1 to 3 percent a year. On top of that you build almost no state pension points during disability, so your later retirement pension is smaller too.

There is a limit at the top. Insurers check what they call appropriateness and normally cover at most around 60 percent of gross income, some 70 percent of gross or 80 percent of net. The idea is that nobody should be better off while disabled than while working.

For students, apprentices and people without their own income there are fixed maximum amounts, often between EUR 1,000 and 1,500. The route upwards later is the increase guarantee (Nachversicherungsgarantie): after starting work, a pay rise, marriage, the birth of a child or buying a home you raise the benefit without new health questions.

A policy only helps while you pay it. If the mathematically correct premium breaks your budget, take the smaller benefit. EUR 1,200 until 67 is worth more than EUR 2,200 you cancel after four years, because a new application is priced on your age and health at that time.

Cut the amount, not the term and not the conditions. Waiving the referral clause (abstrakte Verweisung), a term that runs to your state pension age and the increase guarantee all cost money, but they decide whether anything is paid at all.