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Schools and kindergartens close; many parents face big problems. They should be helped with the extra sick days, but so far there is no legal regulation and therefore many questions.
The SPD parliamentary group in the Bundestag continues to push for swift regulation of the doubling of sick days agreed by the federal and state governments this year. “Parents who have to care for their children at home due to the pandemic urgently need security in planning and additional support,” said SPD parliamentary group health policy spokeswoman Sabine Dittmar. Currently, one advocates a quick legal solution to clarify the details for the use of additional sick days. The leader of the SPD parliamentary group, Rolf Mützenich, had previously urged speed.
Spahn Ministry is responsible
Jens Spahn’s Federal Ministry of Health is responsible. His spokesman had announced that he would present a proposal for a legal regulation “without delay.” The basis is the federal-state resolution last Tuesday. Chancellor Angela Merkel and the prime ministers agreed to increase the number of sick days for children per parent this year from 10 to 20, and for single parents from 20 to 40. Parents should be able to expressly take sick days even if their children do not they are sick, but due to restricted schooling – and daycare operations have to stay at home.
According to Family Minister Franziska Giffey, this should also apply if the facility is not completely closed, but parents comply with the request to leave their children at home.
Health insurance companies don’t know anything either
Compulsory health insurance usually pays sickness benefit for children if parents cannot go to work due to caring for a sick child. It amounts to 90 percent of net earnings. The umbrella association of legal health insurers (GKV) recently said that they are currently awaiting regulations from the Ministry of Health. No further information on the plans is available yet. However, it is assumed that the state measure in the context of the fight against the pandemic will also be financed by the state.
Many practical questions
There are still many open practical questions, for example, which certificate is used to process children’s sick days, if it is not an actual sick leave or if parents with private insurance are also entitled. For the SPD it is important that there is also a solution for those who do not have mandatory health insurance.
The regulation could be decided next week, when the Bundestag meets for the first time this year.
Millions of people affected
Millions of people should be waiting for it. Especially in homes where both parents work, there are likely to be significant problems reconciling work and childcare. According to the Federal Statistical Office, both parents were employed in nearly 3.2 million families with younger children in 2019. That corresponds to a good two-thirds (68 percent) of all families of couples with children under the age of eleven. .
Single parents also face significant problems. According to the statistics of the statistics, 1.1 million children of kindergarten and elementary school age lived with one parent. 581,000 single parents with children under the age of eleven were employed in 2019. Of these, 41 percent worked full time (241,000), the rest part-time. The majority of employed single parents with younger children were women (90 percent).
The president of the Association of Mothers and Single Fathers, Daniela Jaspers, pressed: “It will be important to quickly dry this decision and find a practical and non-bureaucratic implementation.”
Special license for parents
In addition, parents can request a special crown license. It applies to parents who cannot take care of their locked children. The compensation is 67 percent of take-home pay.
