How trainees are well insured
In many areas, trainees remain covered by their parents' existing insurance policies. However, there are also risks for which they need their own insurance.
Those who are about to start or have already started their education should think about their own coverage. Although young trainees are still covered in some areas by their parents' existing insurance policies, they are not covered in all areas.
From legal disputes and accidental disability to damage caused to others as a result of a mishap – even trainees are subject to various risks that can jeopardize their financial existence if the worst comes to the worst.
For some of these risks, trainees, even if they are of age, may already have insurance coverage through existing insurance policies of their parents. In the case of some other risks, the trainee must ensure that he or she is adequately covered himself or herself.
Protection for the consequences of one's own mishaps
One of the most important insurance policies for all citizens is personal liability insurance. Namely, anyone who accidentally harms another is liable for the damage caused to an unlimited extent with all of his or her present and future income and assets. For example, if you accidentally spill a glass of red wine on a friend's carpet while visiting them, you will be responsible for cleaning up the stain.
The same applies if a pedestrian or cyclist causes a traffic accident. Even then, they must be liable for any personal injury, property damage or financial loss that may occur. Such and various other damages caused by the insured's negligence are covered by an existing personal liability policy. It also defends against unjustified or excessive claims made against the insured by third parties.
If the parents already have such a private liability insurance, the minor children, but also adult, unmarried children, as long as they are still in their first professional training, are usually also insured free of charge. With some, partly older policies, it can also be agreed in the insurance conditions that the maximum age up to which a child is covered in the policy of the parents is limited to the age of 25. or 27. year of life.
Protection in the event of legal disputes
The same applies in the case of private and professional legal protection insurance for parents. Here, too, children of full age continue to be co-insured under an existing policy of their parents, provided that the conditions agreed in the insurance contract are met. Depending on the policy agreement, unmarried children of full age are usually co-insured either until they have completed their initial education and are otherwise not engaged in any professional activity, or as long as they are not engaged in any permanent professional activity with a performance-related remuneration.
A trainee's remuneration is not considered to be performance-related remuneration, i.e. trainees are also insured in both of the aforementioned variants. In some policies, however, there is a predefined maximum age for the free co-insurance of children, such as the age of 25. or 27. Year of life.
Incidentally, for free co-insurance with private liability and/or private legal protection policies, it usually doesn't matter whether you're an adult trainee still living with your parents or already have your own apartment.
On the road with a motor vehicle
If you have your own driver's license as a trainee and also drive vehicles that are not registered to your parents or already have a vehicle registered to you, you should have your own driver's legal protection policy or, if you own a vehicle, a traffic legal protection policy.
This is because in many of the parents' traffic insurance policies, an adult child is only insured in his or her capacity as a driver if he or she is driving a motor vehicle registered in the parents' name.
However, if the trainee drives a car that is registered in his or her own name and is not insured under the parents' legal protection policy, or if he or she drives a friend's car for which there is no legal protection insurance, he or she has no legal protection coverage without a policy of his or her own.
Coverage for one's own household effects ..
If the parents of an apprentice have a household insurance policy, his household effects are usually also insured as long as he lives at home and has not yet set up his own household. According to the German Insurance Association e.V. (GDV), a room in a shared apartment is not considered a household. This means that the trainee's inventory in the shared room is also covered by the parents' household contents policy, provided that external insurance protection is agreed in the policy.
Numerous insurers also offer co-insurance of the children's household contents up to a certain sum insured as part of the household contents insurance, in some cases for an additional charge, if the children are only living somewhere else for a longer period of time because of training.
However, if you as a trainee have your own (rented) apartment permanently, i.e. not only for the duration of the training, you usually need your own household contents policy to cover your own furniture, clothing, electrical appliances and other household effects.
… and the work force
Another important form of private insurance, even for young people, is private disability insurance. This is because without such a policy, there is a risk of considerable loss of income and financial difficulties in the long term in the event of incapacity to work or occupational disability due to illness or accident.
The protection of the social insurance, for example with a reduction in earning capacity pension from the statutory pension insurance (GRV), is not sufficient in the case of an incapacity for work to maintain the income that would have been expected without the incapacity for work. In addition, trainees are usually not immediately entitled to a statutory pension for reduced earning capacity from the GRV.
For example, a trainee is generally only entitled to this insurance during the first year of training if he or she becomes incapacitated due to an accident at work or an occupational disease, or if he or she has paid compulsory contributions to the SPS for twelve months in the two years prior to the onset of the reduction in earning capacity. By the way: Within the framework of the statutory pension insurance, there has long since been no statutory occupational disability pension for all persons who have been in training after the 1st year of age. Born on January 1961.
The health insurance of a trainee
For the trainee, any existing free family insurance via the statutory health insurance fund, a provider of statutory health insurance (GKV), with which the parents may be insured, ceases to apply at the start of the training. During the apprenticeship, the apprentice is automatically compulsorily insured in the social insurances such as the statutory health, nursing care and pension insurance and must make the corresponding social contributions from his or her wages.
Up to 14 days after the start of the apprenticeship, the apprentice can usually decide on a specific health insurance company with which he or she wants to be insured. Otherwise, the training company usually registers the trainee with the health insurance fund with which he or she was previously insured. The general SHI contribution rate, which the trainee has to pay proportionately from his or her salary, is 7.3 percent. In addition, depending on their financial situation, each health insurance company has the right to levy an individual additional contribution rate, half of which is also to be borne by the trainee.
This additional contribution rate varies by health insurance company. However, it is not possible to change to a different or more favorable health insurance fund until 18 months after you have been insured with your previous health insurance fund for the first time. For more details on how to cancel and switch health insurance plans, visit the federal Department of Health and Human Services web portal.
Advice helps avoid gaps in coverage
If you want more benefits than the health insurance companies can offer – they have to adhere to legally defined benefits within the framework of the GKV – you can also take out supplementary private health insurance as an apprentice.
Such policies are available, among other things, for services in the area of alternative practitioners, dental treatment and inpatient treatment, such as for single room accommodation. The younger one is at the time of contract conclusion, the lower the insurance premium is.
As a general rule, it is advisable for trainees to consult with an insurance specialist. The insurance company can analyze the respective situation and clarify where there may still be gaps in coverage or where protection is already provided by a free co-insurance with the parents.