Do I have to do anything, or does the money just come?

You must keep the sick notes seamless: every follow-up certificate has to be issued at the latest on the next working day after the previous one ends (Section 46 SGB V). A gap of even one day can interrupt the Krankengeld entitlement, and this bureaucratic tripwire, not the percentage, is the most common way people lose money in practice.

Is Krankengeld taxed?

It is tax-free but subject to Progressionsvorbehalt: it raises the tax rate applied to your other income for the year (Section 32b EStG). Households discover this as an unexpected payment due after the tax return, in the year they could least afford it. Filing becomes mandatory once wage-replacement benefits exceed 410 euro in a year.

Does my pension keep growing while I am on Krankengeld?

Yes, at a reduced rate: the health insurer pays pension contributions based on 80 percent of the earnings underlying your Krankengeld (Section 166 SGB VI). The months count and the points keep accruing, slightly smaller than before.

Can I be fired while on long-term sick leave?

Contrary to the most persistent myth in the German workplace: yes. A sick note does not block a termination; general dismissal protection still applies, and long illness can itself, under conditions, justify a personal-grounds termination. Job protection and income protection are separate systems.

What if it is my child who is sick, not me?

A separate benefit: Kinderkrankengeld pays around 90 percent of the lost net for a limited number of days per parent, per child, per year (Section 45 SGB V). It has its own rules and its own annual limits, and it does not touch your 78-week clock.

Sick longer than six weeks: the income step-down nobody warns you about

For six weeks your payslip notices nothing. In week seven the payer changes, and the amount drops to roughly three quarters of your net, for up to a year and a half. The full staircase, what it means for a family budget, and where the time limits are.

For the first six weeks of an illness, most employees in Germany notice nothing on their payslip: the employer continues full salary. In week seven, the payer changes, and the amount drops to roughly three quarters of your previous net, for up to a year and a half. Most households discover this schedule the week it happens to them. Here is the full staircase, what it means for a family budget, and where the time limits are.

This article is information, not financial or legal advice. It describes the statutory system for publicly insured employees; privately insured people and the self-employed have a different, mostly contract-based system.

Step one: six weeks of full salary

Employees are entitled to continued pay (Entgeltfortzahlung) from the employer for up to six weeks per illness: 100 percent of salary, provided the employment has lasted four weeks (Section 3 Entgeltfortzahlungsgesetz). A new, unrelated illness starts a new six-week clock; the same illness recurring within twelve months generally does not.

Step two: Krankengeld, and what the 70 percent really means

From week seven, public health insurance pays Krankengeld: 70 percent of your gross salary, capped at 90 percent of your net, and additionally capped by the contribution assessment ceiling, so higher earners lose proportionally more (Sections 44, 47 SGB V). From the Krankengeld, your contributions to pension, unemployment and long-term care insurance are still deducted. The practical result for most employees is roughly 72 to 75 percent of their previous net; for earners above the ceiling, noticeably less. For a household running on 90 percent of its income, this is the moment the budget stops balancing on its own.

Step three: the 78-week limit

Krankengeld for the same illness is limited to 78 weeks within three years, counting the employer-paid six weeks (Section 48 SGB V). After that, the paths fork: back to work, often via graded reintegration; unemployment benefit under the special bridging rule if you cannot yet work but are not yet assessed (Section 145 SGB III); or a claim for the reduced earning capacity pension, whose amounts are typically far below previous income (Section 43 SGB VI). The 78-week horizon is the number to plan around: it defines how long the statutory system carries a serious illness before the household's own resources or an insurance product must take over.

What this does to a family budget, concretely

Take a household with 3,500 euro net monthly income and 3,100 euro of committed spending. A 25 percent income step-down cuts the income to 2,625 euro and turns the 400 euro monthly surplus into a 475 euro monthly shortfall, immediately, with no change in the family's obligations. Over the full 72 weeks of Krankengeld that is a gap of roughly 7,900 euro, before any extra illness-related costs. The point of computing this in calm times: the number is knowable in advance. Your household's step-down is arithmetic, not fate, and knowing it changes how big an emergency reserve actually needs to be, a more useful answer than the generic three to six months of expenses.

Two groups with a different staircase

Privately insured employees receive the employer's six weeks like everyone else, but there is no statutory Krankengeld afterwards; the equivalent is a daily sickness allowance insurance (Krankentagegeldversicherung), whose amount is whatever was contracted, including zero if it never was. Self-employed people in public insurance only receive Krankengeld if they opted into it via an elective declaration or tariff (Section 44(2) SGB V). If you are in either group, the single most useful outcome of reading this article is checking, today, what your week-seven income would actually be.

Your household's own staircase

Miravel's job is to make exactly this kind of invisible schedule visible for your household: what a long illness, with its statutory replacement rates and time limits, does to your income, your spending and your reserve over the months. In Miravel you enter Krankengeld as what it legally is, a time-limited income with an end date, and the household projection then shows the coverage gap rather than a vague warning. Ten minutes of setup replaces the week-seven surprise.

Sources

Entgeltfortzahlungsgesetz, Section 3: gesetze-im-internet.de/entgfg
SGB V, Sections 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49 (Krankengeld, child sickness benefit, seamless certification): gesetze-im-internet.de/sgb_5
SGB III, Section 145 (bridging rule): gesetze-im-internet.de/sgb_3
SGB VI, Sections 43, 166 (reduced earning capacity pension, contributions during Krankengeld): gesetze-im-internet.de/sgb_6
GKV-Spitzenverband, Krankengeld guidance: gkv-spitzenverband.de

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to do anything, or does the money just come?: You must keep the sick notes seamless: every follow-up certificate has to be issued at the latest on the next working day after the previous one ends (Section 46 SGB V). A gap of even one day can interrupt the Krankengeld entitlement, and this bureaucratic tripwire, not the percentage, is the most common way people lose money in practice.
Is Krankengeld taxed?: It is tax-free but subject to Progressionsvorbehalt: it raises the tax rate applied to your other income for the year (Section 32b EStG). Households discover this as an unexpected payment due after the tax return, in the year they could least afford it. Filing becomes mandatory once wage-replacement benefits exceed 410 euro in a year.
Does my pension keep growing while I am on Krankengeld?: Yes, at a reduced rate: the health insurer pays pension contributions based on 80 percent of the earnings underlying your Krankengeld (Section 166 SGB VI). The months count and the points keep accruing, slightly smaller than before.
Can I be fired while on long-term sick leave?: Contrary to the most persistent myth in the German workplace: yes. A sick note does not block a termination; general dismissal protection still applies, and long illness can itself, under conditions, justify a personal-grounds termination. Job protection and income protection are separate systems.
What if it is my child who is sick, not me?: A separate benefit: Kinderkrankengeld pays around 90 percent of the lost net for a limited number of days per parent, per child, per year (Section 45 SGB V). It has its own rules and its own annual limits, and it does not touch your 78-week clock.

Miravel shows your household's income step-down in a long illness: replacement rate, time limits and coverage gap, with your own numbers. Your data stays in your browser. Start free now.