If your care worker is ill, on holiday, or temporarily unavailable for any other reason, your nursing care insurance will cover the care worker substitute or so-called respite care for up to six weeks per calender year.
Cost absorption by your nursing care insurance is only possible if the care worker has been in charge of the patient for at least six months and if the weekly need of care adds up to at least ten hours. Another prerequisite is that the patient has been an assignment for of at least care grade II.
If the respite care is carried out by a professional care service, public health care will bear service costs of up to € 1.612 per year.
The amount of respite care allowance can be increased by up to € 806 from the unused short-term care fund to a total of € 2.418 in a calender year.