The Greens in the Bundestag are demanding more financial help for caring relatives in view of the ongoing corona pandemic. “As long as support offers are broken down, a Corona care allowance is needed to ensure reliable financial compensation,” said fraction head Katrin Göring-Eckardt of Tagesspiegel Background Gesundheit & E-Health. In addition, home carers should be entitled to sufficient protective equipment, regular corona tests and access to municipal emergency care services.
The reason for the advance is the Intensive Care and Rehabilitation Strengthening Act (IPReG), which is to be passed by the Bundestag this week. The federal government plans to reorganize outpatient care. However, they leave a large group, namely five million caring relatives, “standing in the rain again”, criticize the Greens – even though the corona pandemic is far from over.
Göring-Eckardt emphasized that 75 percent of those in need of care were cared for at home by relatives, neighbors or friends. These would “have had to pull their arms and legs out in some places for months due to a lack of day care or closed care services”. And this “permanent state of emergency” should “not be labeled as their private problem”.
“A question of social justice”
Relieving caregivers in the corona crisis is a question of social justice, says Kordula Schulz-Asche, the spokeswoman for the elderly and care policy. In the event of acute supply shortages, for example, they would need quick and unbureaucratic help. “That is why we propose a communal emergency hotline and a central, digital register with emergency care facilities.” In addition, day and short-term care facilities should “start up again as soon as possible”.
Another key point of the application is a wage replacement payment for caring relatives of up to six weeks, “if, in an epidemic situation of national scope, no childcare facilities are available, such as in day care.” It is a matter of “creating an arrangement similar to that for parents whose children cannot be cared for due to the effects of the corona crisis,” the paper says. And in “special stressful situations” they should receive nursing support money for up to 20 days.
In addition, according to the wishes of the Greens, there would be a three-month “Care Time Plus”. This gave caring relatives the right to a wage replacement benefit “that is calculated like parental allowance and financed from tax funds”. However, not only relatives, but also friends or neighbors of the person in need of care – and not only all employed persons irrespective of the size of the company, but also the self-employed would be eligible. This care time plus – like the current care time – would have to be announced ten working days in advance, it says in the application. And it should also be able to be divided between two people who take care of one person.
So far there has been little relief
Furthermore, it was important to “make preventive care more flexible”. The Greens, for example, want the amount of benefits provided for this to increase by up to € 1,612 for short-term care funds that have not been used. There would then be up to 3,224 euros per calendar year for those in need of care. At the same time, the relief amount had to be increased to EUR 250 and its ties to fixed service providers had to be lifted, the demand. And the flat rate for care aids must also be raised from the current 40 to 80 euros – “at least for the duration of the epidemic situation of national importance”.
So far, the Federal Government has only provided isolated measures in the “Second Law for the Protection of the Population in an Epidemic Situation of National Impact” in order to relieve carers and relatives. This includes, for example, more flexible handling of the relief amount from long-term care insurance or that care allowance can be granted as a wage replacement for up to ten days in the event of a supply bottleneck caused by the corona virus. But that’s not enough, the Greens think.
