Overview
- The Health Ministry’s draft would cap statutory sick pay at a single 78 weeks within three years regardless of diagnosis, replacing today’s per‑illness limit.
- Officials frame the cap as a way to curb hard‑to‑check overlaps and save about €110–120 million a year, which would hit people who suffer back‑to‑back serious illnesses the hardest.
- Under the new basic income support, full benefit cuts are now possible after repeated refusals, yet a Dresden social court ruling says agencies must weigh health reasons and offer real help before sanctioning.
- Germany’s top social court ruled that a phased return to work does not by itself let privately insured workers reenter statutory coverage, because the lower reintegration pay does not create a new employment contract or a lasting drop below the threshold.
- Labor Minister Bärbel Bas plans to fold basic income support, housing benefit and the child supplement into one system, with a concept due by autumn and legislation targeted by the end of 2027.