Care Respite care allowance – giving family carers a short break

Read out loud

Respite care allowance covers the cost of care for short periods when family carers or other voluntary carers are temporarily unavailable. It is a long-term care insurance benefit that allows arrangements to be made for replacement care for a care recipient – at home or in a care facility.

At a glance

Respite care allowance (“Verhinderungspflege” in German) is intended to give carers some respite, i.e., relief from their caring role for a limited period.
It consists of a budget that the person in need of care can use to pay for a replacement carer while their regular family carer is unavailable.
The family carer may, for example, be unwell, have work commitments or want to take a vacation or engage in leisure-time activities.
Respite care allowance can be provided for several hours, days or weeks at a time.
Since July 1, 2025, there has been an entitlement to up to 8 weeks of respite care per calendar year.
The scope of the entitlement depends on whether the respite care, i.e., replacement care is to be provided by close relatives or people from within the same household or by distant relatives, acquaintances or service providers.
Since July 1, 2025, respite care and short-term care allowances have together come to a maximum annual amount of 3,539 euros per calendar year.

Someone passing a mug to an older person.

What is respite care allowance?

Respite care allowance enables family carers or other carers to take some time off from their caring roles on a regular basis or for several weeks a year or to take care of their own health needs – while knowing that the care recipient will continue to be looked after.

Since July 1, 2025, the benefits from long-term care insurance providers have comprised an annual budget that can be flexibly used for respite and short-term care. This allows care recipients to arrange replacement care in accordance with their own requirements. They themselves can choose the person who will provide the replacement care and where it will be provided.

Respite care allowance enables care recipients to arrange for replacement care in accordance with their own requirements.

The respite care can be provided in an environment that is familiar to the care recipient, such as in their own home or in the home of the replacement carer. However, other settings are also possible – for example, residential facilities for people with disabilities, boarding facilities and residential care facilities. Replacement care can be provided by nursing staff, family members, loved ones or others, such as neighbors, volunteers, aid agencies or rural home helpers.

Caring for other people is very time-consuming and challenging. In addition, many carers are also in employment, have their own families to raise or, in many cases, are themselves of older age and have health issues to deal with. A regular entitlement to a vacation and to time off to recharge gives them some relief and ensures that care can continue to be provided to the care recipient at home so that a move to a full-time residential care facility can be avoided in the long term. Respite care allowance can also be provided for just a few hours a day to give carers a short break.

The care recipient is the person entitled to respite care allowance. The budget is available as an annual budget and can be flexibly used when a carer is unavailable to provide care.

Respite care is essentially replacement care provided on a temporary basis as relief for caregivers. The respite care allowance is a long-term care insurance benefit that covers the cost of this relief.

The same entitlements and criteria apply to people with private long-term care insurance and those with statutory long-term care insurance.

What level of cover is provided by the respite care allowance?

There are two different levels of respite care allowance cover. The care recipient’s level of cover depends on the person who will temporarily provide them with care in place of their usual carer:

a person unrelated to them (unrelated carer)
a closely related person or person living in the same household (related carer)

What is the entitlement for respite care provided by an unrelated carer?

Unrelated carers include, for example, home care services, other professional nursing staff and voluntary carers who are not closely related to the care recipient.

To finance these, a combined annual budget of maximum 3,539 euros per calendar year has been available for respite and short-term care since July 1, 2025. Since July 1, 2025, it has been possible to spread out respite care over up to 8 weeks. Until June 30, 2025, the entitlement was to a maximum of 6 weeks per calendar year. The former rule stipulating that only some short-term care benefits could be converted into respite care benefits has been scrapped.

This means that the amount can be flexibly spent on both forms of benefits in multiple installments to cover far shorter periods but cannot be used to cover more than 8 weeks of care. Also, there is no maximum amount per day specified.

If the combined annual budget for respite and short-term care does not cover the cost of a professional carer, it is sometimes possible to apply for help with care costs from the local social welfare office.

Important: If the respite care is provided in a residential facility, the long-term care insurance provider only covers the care-related costs.

What level of cover is available for respite care provided by a family carer?

A family carer is a person who is related up to the second degree to the care recipient either by blood or by marriage or who lives with the care recipient in the same household.

A smaller allowance is available to cover respite care provided by these carers. It is based on the care recipient’s nursing care allowance for a period of 8 weeks. This means that, like a nursing care allowance, the respite care allowance available for family carers depends on the care grade that has been assigned to the care recipient.

The following amounts were available per calendar year until June 30, 2025 (equivalent to 1.5 times the nursing care allowance):

Care grade 2: 520.50 euros
Care grade 3: 898.50 euros
Care grade 4: 1,200 euros
Care grade 5: 1,485 euros

Since July 1, 2025, the following amounts have been available per calendar year (equivalent to 2 times the nursing care allowance):

Care grade 2: 694 euros
Care grade 3: 1,198 euros
Care grade 4: 1,600 euros
Care grade 5: 1,980 euros

If respite care is provided by a family carer, the long-term care insurance provider also covers the costs of any necessary expenses incurred (surplus costs). These include loss of earnings and travel expenses, for example. Reimbursement is subject to the submission of receipts/proof of costs.

Until June 30, 2025, however, long-term care insurance only refunded a maximum of 2,528 euros per year from the total amount for respite care provided by relatives and pro rata short-term care. Since July 1, 2025, it has been possible to receive a refund of up to 3,539 euros from the annual budget for respite care and additional expenses.

Important: It was not possible to exceed the maximum entitlement before June 30, 2025. From the second half of the year, the difference until reaching the maximum annual budget valid from July 1 will be available.

The following are all considered family carers:

spouses and life partners
couples living together in a union resembling marriage
parents, step-parents, parents-in-law
grandparents, step-grandparents, grandparents of a spouse or life partner
children, step-children, spouses or life partners of children (sons-in-law and daughters-in-law)
grandchildren, spouses or life partners of a grandchild (grandsons-in law and granddaughters-in-law)
siblings, brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law

Important: If a person is being paid to care for a care recipient who is a relative of theirs up to the second degree or who lives in the same household as them, they are entitled to claim the benefits that are available for unrelated carers. The prerequisite in this case is that the care they are providing must be a means for them to earn an income.

Rules on information and transparency

The following rule has applied since July 1, 2025 to ensure that care recipients and their relatives can retain an overview of the benefits that have already been used: if respite care is provided by a care facility, this must immediately provide the care recipient with an overview of any costs incurred that will be deducted from the annual amount.

In addition, care recipients still have an entitlement to information from long-term care insurance providers.

Care recipients can request the following from their long-term care insurance provider:

An overview of the benefits received within the last 18 months and their costs (on request, this overview can be automatically provided every six months until the request is revoked)
An overview of the individual benefits for which service providers have requested settlement from the long-term care insurance provider (this information must be prepared in a way that is comprehensible for the care recipient)
A copy of the billing documents submitted to the long-term care insurance provider by service providers

What is the “hourly respite care allowance”?

No minimum duration is specified for respite care allowance. You can apply for this benefit of long-term care insurance even for just a few hours per day.

This can be useful if, for example, the carer is unavailable for only part of a day but the care recipient requires constant care – as in the case of children in need of care or people with dementia.

Hourly respite care is paid out of the existing allowance but the time limit no longer applies. Over 56 days of hourly respite care per calendar year can therefore be covered.

The prerequisite here is that the regular carer must be unavailable for less than 8 hours per day. On the other hand, the length of time for which the replacement carer steps in for the regular carer is not taken into account. For example, if a carer is absent for more than 8 hours because of a business trip, hourly respite care cannot be claimed – even if the respite care was only provided for 5 hours. The time limit of 8 weeks therefore still applies in this case.

Which criteria apply to the respite care allowance?

The respite care allowance can be claimed by care recipients with a care grade of 2 or higher.

The following additional criteria must also be met:

The care that the person normally receives is provided at home and is provided partly or entirely by one or more family carers or voluntary carers. These may be relatives, friends or neighbors, for example.
The regular carer is temporarily unable to provide care during periods of illness or vacation or for another similarly important reason.

Important: Since July 1, 2025, it has no longer been necessary for relatives or a voluntary carer to have provided or supplemented the care for at least 6 months. This “qualifying period” has therefore ceased to exist.

The criteria are considered met even if only one of multiple carers are unavailable or if the carer who is unavailable provides care to the care recipient in addition to a home care service or a day care service – for example, in the evenings, at night or on weekends.

In contrast, there is no entitlement to respite care if the care recipient is cared for exclusively by a home care service.

Are people with care grade 1 entitled to respite care allowance?

People with care grade 1 are not entitled to respite care allowance. However, they can use the additional relief allowance to finance professional nursing support or a support service.

What are the reasons for applying for respite care allowance?

Respite care may be required during periods of illness, vacation or other “substantial reasons”. As respite care allowance is intended to provide relief to family carers and voluntary carers, these substantial reasons also include recreational activities, such as visiting friends or going to watch a movie.

If in doubt, it’s a good idea to contact the long-term care insurance fund or private long-term care insurance company to ask whether the criteria are met and which costs they will cover.

Nursing care advice centers also provide information about the criteria for respite care allowance and about other benefits and services that are available.

How do I make a claim for respite care allowance?

A claim for respite care allowance must be submitted to the care recipient’s statutory long-term care insurance fund or private long-term care insurance company. Retrospective claims can also be submitted.

When submitting a claim, you must specify why the regular carer is unavailable.

Respite care allowance is not paid on a flat-rate basis. The long-term care insurance provider will retrospectively reimburse you for costs accrued up to the maximum amount possible. You must submit accounts of all expenses, together with receipts and other proof of costs, to the long-term care insurance provider.

In the case of family carers, the replacement carer and the care recipient will agree on the rate at which replacement care is to be paid. Long-term care insurance providers often have expenses forms that can be used to provide documentary evidence of costs.

How does respite care allowance affect other benefits?

If a carer is unavailable to provide care for a number of days or weeks, the nursing care allowance is reduced: during this time, only half of the nursing care allowance will be paid. The nursing care allowance will only be paid in full on the first and last days.

If the carer is unavailable for a number of hours only (up to 8 hours per day), the nursing care allowance is not reduced.

In addition, the budgets for care benefits in kind and for day care remain unchanged if a family carer who provides the care recipient with additional care is unavailable.