| The Bundesrat has approved a law from the Bundestag that is intended to provide greater support for the inclusive labor market. In the plenary session on 12.5.23, the federal states also passed an accompanying resolution in which they called, among other things, for the elimination of obstacles to guaranteeing unrestricted access to long-term care insurance benefits for all people with disabilities.
What the law provides
The law aims to get more people with disabilities into regular work, to keep more people with health impairments in work and to enable more targeted support for people with severe disabilities.
Higher compensation fee
This is to be achieved, among other things, by increasing the compensatory levy for employers who do not employ a single severely disabled person despite having an employment obligation. As before, there are special regulations for smaller employers.
Employers have already had to employ severely disabled people in at least 5 percent of their jobs. This regulation applies to employers with at least 20 jobs. A compensatory levy is due for every compulsory job that is not occupied by a severely disabled person: 140 euros for an employment rate of 3 to 5 percent, 245 euros for an employment rate of 2 to less than 3 percent and 360 euros for an employment rate of less than 2 percent. The law provides for a new fourth season: If the employment rate is 0 percent, 720 euros must be paid.
Too many employers do not employ severely disabled people
The explanatory memorandum to the law points out that around 45,000 employers – around a quarter – still do not employ a single severely disabled person. These employers should pay a higher compensatory levy than those employers who employ at least a small number of severely disabled people.
More innovations
In future, the funds from the compensatory levy are to be concentrated on promoting the employment of severely disabled people on the general labor market.
A fictional approval after six weeks will be introduced for claims from the integration office in order to speed up the approval process.
The cap on the wage subsidy in the budget for work is lifted. This is intended to ensure that even after the minimum wage has been raised to EUR 12 nationwide, the maximum wage cost subsidy can be granted – to the extent required by the circumstances of the individual case.
In addition, the law reorganizes the expert advisory board for medical care assessments.
Further steps
The law will now be forwarded to the Federal President for execution and can then be promulgated in the Federal Law Gazette. It will come into force for the most part on January 1st, 2024, with individual regulations even earlier.
Those |
Plenary session of the Federal Council on 12.5.23, BundesratKOMPAKT