Care: Day care could become more expensive

According to Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania's Social Minister Stefanie Drese (SPD), day care could soon become more expensive. Drese announced in Schwerin that the federal government's planned Care Reorganization Act would affect day care through cuts in the relief allowance and preventive care.

5,000 places in day care

“As a result, the personal contribution increases and offers can no longer be used as before.” She urgently called for improvements to the draft law that the federal cabinet passed last week.

According to Drese, there are currently more than 220 day care centers with over 5,000 places in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. In their view, if the law were to come into effect as planned, it would lead to falling capacity utilization, site closures and less relief for caring relatives. “This would mean that we would be pushing people into full-time inpatient care,” warned the minister.

Associations give numbers

Nursing associations point out that many caring relatives rely on day care in order to be able to remain employed. “The families bear the costs for accommodation, meals and investments themselves. So far they have been able to use the relief amount of 131 euros per month for this,” explained the Federal Association of Carers and the Association of Caring Relatives in a joint statement. According to the cabinet decision, this should no longer be possible in the future. As a result, care households were missing out on up to 1,572 euros per year.

140,000 people in need of care in MV

According to the ministry, around 140,000 people in need of care live in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Of them, 86 percent are cared for at home. Day care is an important component of this, said Drese. It relieves the burden on caring relatives.

Last week, the Federal Cabinet launched the first stage of a nursing care reform, which is primarily intended to initially alleviate the extreme financial difficulties of nursing care insurance. The draft still has to go through the Bundestag and Bundesrat and is likely to be changed there.