According to a study, poorer people need care more often and earlier than those with higher incomes. The same applies to workers compared to civil servants, as the study by the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) published on Wednesday shows. People with high workloads are also more affected. "Not only income and life expectancy are socially unevenly distributed in Germany, but also the risk of care," said DIW expert Peter Haan, who, together with his colleagues, evaluated data from the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
According to the information, almost 3.5 million people were receiving outpatient care at the end of 2020.
Men who earned less than 60 percent of the median income immediately before retirement are dependent on home care around six years earlier than men with more than 150 percent of the median income.
For women, the difference is around three and a half years.
There are also differences depending on the occupational position: On average, workers need care around four years earlier than civil servants.
In order to examine the influence of physical and psychosocial work loads, the last activity was assigned an index value from one (low loads) to ten (high loads).
The result: men and women with high occupational stress have an average of 4.7 and 2.7 fewer years of life, respectively, in which they are not dependent on care by others than people with low stress.
“The need for long-term care does not only depend on age and does not occur by chance,” said DIW expert Johannes Geyer.
"On the contrary: the need for long-term care is influenced by society, income and the world of work."
High care risk reduces income
The costs for care in Germany are only partially covered by the statutory long-term care insurance - the rest has to be borne privately.
In addition, with informal care, relatives are often stressed in terms of time, physically and psychologically.
Since people with low incomes or a high job load have a higher risk of care, the costs for them occur more frequently and reduce the already lower disposable income. "To combat this inequality, we need social policy measures that compensate for it," said researcher Haan. "We need both concepts that take effect immediately and those that are designed for the long term."
A sustainable policy should start in the employment phase and reduce workload there, for example, in order to preventively reduce the risk of care.
In the short term, the services of the statutory long-term care insurance should be expanded and the quality and range of care increased.
Alternatively, private co-payments can also be made more dependent on income.
Citizens' insurance, which brings together private and statutory long-term care insurance, could also help reduce inequality.