Private insurance
Work disability insurance: That’s why it’s so expensive
Updated 11/19/2025 – 07:42Reading time: 5 minutes
Work disability insurance (BU) is expensive but important. In an emergency, it can replace your income until you retire. These are the factors that are important.
For those who were not born rich and do not expect a large inheritance, the income earned is essential to their livelihood. Rent, electricity, cars and children – all this also means high expenses, which will increase in the future due to inflation.
If you lose income due to long-term illness or even work-related disability, the health insurance company will cover your salary for the first year and a half – but only proportionally. If your health does not improve, there is a risk that you will fall into poverty through no fault of your own.
Work disability insurance can reduce or even prevent the consequences of long-term loss of income. Kai Fürderer of the Society for Quality Testing explains how much a BU pension costs and what you should pay attention to when taking it.
Kai Fürderer, together with his wife Iris, runs Gesellschaft für Qualitätsprüfung mbH based in Herrsching am Ammersee. Society for Quality Testing is a company that exclusively deals in in-depth quality testing based on recognized quality standards and norms.
“No one wants it, but in the event of work-related disability, the disability pension cannot compensate for lost wages,” says Kai Fürderer. You will only receive disability pension after 78 weeks, after which the health insurance company will no longer pay sickness benefits. Employees are entitled to a full disability pension if they are able to work less than three hours a day due to illness or disability.
- Can no longer work: When are you entitled to disability pension
- Unable to work or unable to work? That’s the important difference
You will receive a partial disability pension if you can work at least three, but no more than six, hours a day, not only at the last job you held, but at all jobs. Increase disability pension? This is the additional income limit. With BU insurance you avoid the strict limitations of statutory disability pensions – but the costs are high.
BU insurance is one of the most expensive private insurance policies out there. However, it is also intended to guarantee livelihoods up to normal retirement age. In a worst-case scenario, the costs of ongoing credit agreements, for example for real estate financing or car payments, can no longer be met.
If the income you earn stops, you will soon be in debt. “From this point of view, BU insurance and related costs should be viewed differently if they are intended to guarantee a person’s livelihood until retirement,” Fürderer said.
Apart from liability insurance, occupational disability insurance is the second most important insurance. Especially young people who are about to start their careers, should take out this insurance. Because: “A fee of 60 to 70 euros per month may seem expensive for schoolchildren or students, but compared to what they will earn later, the amount is reasonable.” Find out here how beneficial occupational disability insurance is.
Anyone who takes out BU insurance in their late 20s or mid 30s is already paying 100 euros per month or more. With the agreed contribution dynamics, the annual contribution increases more than someone who started with 60 euros. “If you take out BU insurance later in life, you might save eight to ten years of contributions, but for a BU pension of the same amount, the monthly burden is much higher,” says Fürderer.
