NECESSITY is the mother of invention, particularly in Germany as it continues on a seemingly unstoppable path to become Europe’s grey-haired capital in 30 years’ time.
After measures to encourage couples to have more children, family minister Christine Schröder has presented a radical rethink in how the country will care for its ageing population.
The core of the proposal is to let carers work half-time for two years at 75 per cent of their regular pay.
This has been welcomed by German unions and charities as a welcome revision to existing care provisions that allow for six months of unpaid leave.
“It needn’t be a case of just caring for one’s own parents, but also children or other relatives,” said Ms Schröder to the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper, describing the plan as a flexible solution at minimum cost.
After being granted two years half-time work at 75 per cent salary, an employee would be expected to work a further two years full-time for the same money.
“It would come at minimum cost to the taxpayer while the state would just sacrifice the tax income on the 75 per cent salary,” she said, “but the social insurance payments would go to the caring family. Care at home is cheaper than in a facility, not to mention the preference of most people themselves.”
Currently 2.2 million Germans require full-time care, two-thirds of whom are cared for at home. However, that number of elderly people in need of care is expected to triple by 2050; today’s large number of single adults is likely to correspond to a rise in demand for facility care.
Germany’s care organisations welcomed the idea as an “interesting proposal”. However, “it would be a mistake to think we can solve this issue on the cheap,” said Andreas Westerfellhaus, president of Germany’s Care Federation, on national radio.
Unsurprisingly, employers reacted critically to a proposal they would help finance, saying it lacked financial detail.
“Of course we need solutions in companies to carry the cost of the demographic shift,” said Achim Dercks, of Germany’s Chamber of Industry and Commerce, “but state regulation would be the wrong answer.”
As the youngest member of chancellor Angela Merkel’s cabinet, Ms Schröder will need all her energy to push through the plan against considerable resistance from the junior coalition partner, the liberal Free Democrats.