Unemployment > Hartz IV > Insurances

Hartz IV: Health Insurance, Life Insurance and Others

Definition, Explanation

To receive Hartz IV benefits while being insured brings about two ways of interdependency: First, receivers of Hartz IV benefits are entitled to getting their contributions to social insurance paid, and second, certain contracted insurances count as utilizable assets.

Entitlement to insurance contributions refunds when receiving Hartz IV

As a receiver of Hartz IV benefits, respectively unemployment benefit II, you are a member in statutory insurances. The contributions are paid by the labour agency. These insurances include:

• Statutory Health Insurance
• Statutory Nursing Care Insurance
• Statutory Pension Insurance
  The labour agency pays for you the minimum contribution of 40 Euros per month to the pension insurance. Your times of unemployment are counted as times of paid contributions
• Accident Insurance
  On your ways to your labour agency / ARGE and back, you are insured against accidents. This is also for ways to job interviews

Receivers of unemployment benefit II are not insured in the social insurance if:

• they already are insured. This applies to persons who e.g. exert a social-insurance-compelling occupation, or are co-insured by the family members. This prevents double insuring
• they receive unemployment benefit II payments only one-time
• they are granted unemployment benefit II in the form of a loan
• they receive social money without a family insurance (e.g. as a partner in a marriage-like relationship)
• are insured in a private health insurance

Hartz IV receivers who are not compulsorily insured in the social insurance and do not receive social money without a family insurance receive a contribution support of € 129.54 to health insurance, maximum € 17.79 to nursing care insurance, and maximum € 40.80 to pension insurance.

If you are a jobseeker and are not entitled to receiving unemployment benefit II, then the labour agency or ARGE will not pay your contributions to health, nursing care and pension insurance. You must pay them on your own, then. However, you can receive a support for the contributions when your status changes to “in need of support”.

Insurances as utilizable assets

Insurances that are terminable before the provided contract end date, or terminable before the start of pension age, are considered utilizable assets. This includes especially capital-forming life- and pension insurances, such as e.g. direct insurances. The considered value of the insurance is the current cash value, or surrender value.

The kinds of insurances considered utilizable assets are:

• life insurances
• private pension insurance
• insurances for education and dowry
• private working-inability insurance
• death benefit insurance

Insurances not counted as utilizable assets are:

• insurances that are uneconomical to surrender. Which is the case if the guaranteed surrender value is below 90 per cent of the sum of all paid contributions
• Riester pension, since no lump-sum cashing is possible
• Rürup pension, since cashing is done in life-long monthly payments
• company pension
• base pension

For insurances rate utilizable assets, the labour agency can enforce the contract to be ended or cancelled early, by retaining unemployment benefit II payments. Even if a surrender is uneconomical, the labour agency can enforce a life insurance contract is loaned on.

Life or pension insurances that serve old-age provision and can be cashed only after the contractor has turned 60, are provided for by an exempt amount. Amounting to 200 Euro per year of age of the insured plus those of his partner.

Other insurances

Besides the social insurance, that is health, pension and nursing care insurance, and besides insurances serving old-age provision including life insurances, there are a number of private insurances that are important for receivers of Hartz IV benefits. Those are:

• General liability insurance
  This insurance is meant to pay for damages that the insured causes to third. This covers compensation claims that arise due to negligence and carelessness. That is why an exempt amount of 30 Euros is included in the basic exempt amount for the additional income for paying contributions to this insurance
• Working-inability insurance
  The benefits of this insurance depend on the age at which one contracts them. When you certify that you can no longer work in you learned profession due to health reasons, this insurance pays you a pension. A working-inability pension, though, is counted as income for the Hartz IV benefits
• Sickness daily allowance insurance
  This insurance is not reasonable to have, for Hartz IV receivers, since possible benefits would reduce the unemployment benefit II. Also, many insurances refuse to pay when you are unemployed
• Automobile insurances
  Is necessary if you drive a car

If you have additional income besides your Hartz IV benefits, then your private insurance contributions, e.g. for automobile and general liability insurance, are included in the exempt amount of 100 Euros. Persons earning more than 400 Euros per month even receive the actual higher amounts if they are certified.

Tips, Checklist

• Before you first receive unemployment benefit II, you should look through your insurances. Which are really necessary and reasonable, which insurances will reduce your unemployment benefit II to what amounts
• Before you apply for Hartz Iv benefits, make sure that your cash-value life insurances and private pension insurances contain a so-called Hartz-Iv clause. This clause says that the capital amounting to the old-age provision exempt amount cannot be cashed before the insured has reached pension age. A retroactive inserting of the clause in insurance contracts is generally legal. What is not legal, however, is to remove it
• Do not cancel your life insurance hastily because of Hartz IV. Check possibilities of having it rest for your time of receiving Hartz IV, and of including the Hartz IV clause, and get information of the current surrender value
• Be sure not to give up your insurance protection prematurely
• Possibly negotiate deferral with your insurer if you are unable to pay contributions for one of the components (e.g. general liability)
• If you are insured in a private health insurance, stay there. To change to statutory health insurance is not legal. This regulation applies to all who receive unemployment benefit I since the beginning of 2009. People who have been receivers, before, were allowed to change to statutory health insurance.
• Change to the basic tariff of your private health insurance. The respective premium is half for Hartz IV receivers. The labour agency generally pays a support of 129.54 Euros per month. The rest of the premium is paid by the unemployed. However, recent court decisions are contrary to limiting of contributions, and compel the ARGE to full payment of the private health and nursing-care insurances
• Make sure that you have a working-inability pension with at least 500 Euros per month and that your contract contains conditions enabling you to extend the insurance. The alternative, being a lower working-inability pension, makes less sense since the Hartz IV benefits the will be higher

Last update: 03/30/2010