Our latest benefit BU case shows what good employee protection looks like in practice and why it is so important. Alte Leipziger acknowledged our client’s occupational disability within 3 weeks without asking. A great example of the significance of performance dynamics and the question of all questions about basic capacity insurance.
If one of our clients fails to work, we of course offer our support. Because after completing a disability insurance (BU) this is the most important time when professional help is important. This is also the case in this case of special benefits.
Employment protection: male, 47, commercial activity, diagnosed with Huntington’s disease
Our client was in his early 40s when he completed his BU with us. A family is born, children are born and, after a changing professional life, a new promising job is found. He imagines a commercial job with lots of field service, lots of contacts, negotiation, organizational and control activities.
Five years later, the wife called: Her husband had already been on sick leave for several months, suffered from unsteady walking, dizziness and insomnia, and now the diagnosis was clear: Huntington’s disease.
Huntington’s disease: incurable and fatal
He writes about Huntington’s disease Wikipedia:
Korea Huntingtonalso Huntington’s chorea or Huntington’s disease (…) Called, is an incurable hereditary disease of the brain, characterized by involuntary and uncoordinated movements with simultaneous relaxation of muscle tone, culminating in dementia and leading to death.
What a stroke of fate.
Employee protection: quick help through the AU clause
As quick help was needed, we initially asked about the benefits inability to work from the disability insurance. This can work very quickly, with the right AU clause. This means: It must be possible to verify the benefits of inability to work independently of a BU grant application and AU certificates must be sufficient as proof.
Here too it worked: in a short time, the first money arrived from the insurer, Alte Leipziger. Such a quick service helps those affected immensely – it’s one less worry and gives you valuable time to prepare your much more complex BU service application in peace.
Invalidity recognized within 3 weeks
It always takes a long time to get all the documents for a BU benefit application together. Because it is always information about your career, your job, your last job, your income, the course of your illness, other insurers, health insurance, statutory pension insurance, etc.
Ideally, you should provide all the necessary evidence along with your benefit claim. This saves benefit inspectors from lengthy inquiries with insurers and can greatly speed up auditing.
This is also the case here: we submitted the application for benefits with all documents to Alte Leipziger on 2 June 2022. After exactly 3 weeks, the recognition of the occupational disability arrived without further questions.
This worker insurance is around 600,000 euros
The BU annuity insured at the onset of occupational disability was 2,338.49 euros / month. As is known, Huntington’s disease is an incurable disease. This means that this client will be like most disabled people: Most BU benefit cases come to an end (bitter)..
An increase in the guaranteed pension of 2% (performance dynamics) leads to up to € 100,000 in additional income for the insured
In the following table we have shown the maximum possible trend of this BU pension. Once with and once without the agreed 2 percent guaranteed performance dynamics (LD). As a result, the insured person can get up to almost € 100,000 more in benefits from his contract with this absolutely sensible add-on module.
A sure right even for basic capacity insurance. But when?
If you look back at the history of Huntington’s disease, you’ll find that at some point the limitations will be as severe as even one basic capacity insurance will have to afford.
Many insurers and brokers are pushing this relatively young insurance, which (only) pays off when basic human skills like walking, standing, climbing stairs have been permanently lost. Some praise them for worker protection or even as an alternative to disability insurance.
The only question is when the restrictions will be so severe that basic insurance money flows out of the capacity of the insured person and how much of the benefit period will then be left.
Worker Insurance Practical Example: How Much Income Would This Client Have Without Disability Insurance?
As is known (?), There are several options for employee protection, both social security and private insurance. In this case, currently (June 2022) it looks like this for our client:
- Compulsory health insurance has a maximum of 72 months pay for sickness paid and the service was stopped. So the current income from it is zero.
- The private insurer for daily sickness benefit (test winner at Stiftung Warentest, we did not mediate) has been asking questions for a thousand months and still hasn’t done anything. So the current income from it is zero. If the money comes, then only temporarily. Because man is already recognized for a job and also a reduced earning capacity. This ends the payment of the daily sickness benefit.
- German pension insurance has one perpetual full disability pension recognized and will pay from 01.07.2022. Income from it: About 990 euros / month.
- What would basic capacity insurance pay now? Anything.
- Would private disability insurance pay now? Probably yes. For this customer, however, it would cost exactly the same as his disability insurance. So it doesn’t make sense, because the BU protection has a higher value.
The question of all questions on basic capacity insurance
Let me summarize again briefly why it is such a sensational case: the man is not only unable to work, he is completely disabled. In no profession can he work more than 3 hours a day. Probably not even doing a 450 euro job anymore. State security reaches 990 euros / month. And now my question:
How long can a person starting at € 990 a month afford the contributions of a basic capacity insurance of, for example, € 100 a month?
If someone has to cancel basic capacity insurance because they can no longer work or earn money, it simply doesn’t help the insured person. Then it’s wasted money and no work insurance.
Conclusion on worker protection based on this BU benefit case
First of all, a big thank you to the Alte Leipziger performance testers. It went quickly, although the situation with this diagnosis is crystal clear.
Perhaps it will now become clearer to one or the other reader why I basically cannot accept basic job security insurance or as an alternative to disability insurance. As a supplement, however, it may have its justification.
I wish our client and his family that the disability insurance pension will help them have at least one less worry. And that there is enough time for many other good times.
worker protection