In short and in plain language
Sometimes a person suddenly needs care. For example, after a fall. Then their children must help fast. Many of them have jobs.
They may then stay off work for up to ten days. This means days when they would normally work. A law says so. They tell their boss right away.
If the employer does not pay for these days, the care insurance pays money. You have to ask for it quickly.
For this, you need a note. A doctor can write it. Since 2026, a trained nurse can write it too.
A care service can explain all this on its website. The page has a short form to ask for a call back. We build this page for you.
The call rarely comes at a good moment: a mother has fallen at home, a father is to be discharged earlier than expected after a stroke, and the daughter is at her desk or in the middle of a shift. From that moment she has two jobs at once. Care at home has to be in place within a few days, and her employer wants to know how long she will be away. The German Care Leave Act (Pflegezeitgesetz) gives employees the right to stay away from work for up to ten working days (Care Leave Act) in exactly this situation; if the employer does not continue paying wages, the long-term care insurance fund pays the care support allowance (Pflegeunterstützungsgeld) to replace lost pay. Since 1 January 2026 (Federal Law Gazette), a certificate from a nursing professional has been accepted alongside a doctor's certificate. For home care services, that is a good reason to create a dedicated guide page: it answers the questions working relatives have in the first week and leads to a call-back in which the service sets up care together with them. This article explains what Section 2 PflegeZG and Section 44a SGB XI provide, what the new certificate means for your service and how to structure the page. It provides general information and does not replace legal advice in individual cases.
Key takeaways
- In an acute care situation, employees may stay away from work for up to ten working days (Care Leave Act). There is no advance notice period, but they must tell their employer about the absence and its expected length without delay.
- Pay is replaced by the care support allowance from the care insurance fund of the person cared for: up to ten working days per calendar year (SGB XI), as a rule 90 percent (SGB V) of lost net pay. The application must be made without delay.
- Since 1 January 2026 (Federal Law Gazette), a certificate from a nursing professional is also accepted. The care service decides in advance who issues it and that it is only issued after a conversation or home visit.
- The guide page lists three steps in a fixed order: tell the employer, get a certificate, apply to the care insurance fund. It also shows a review date, the legal references as sources and a note that it does not replace legal advice.
- The call-back route uses a short form without diagnosis fields and adds a "certificate needed" checkbox. That way the service schedules the home assessment in the very first call-back.
- After the first week, care leave of up to six months (Care Leave Act), family care leave of up to 24 months (Family Care Leave Act) and an application for a care level may follow. The page names these routes without promising entitlements.
A sudden need for care hits working people
In December 2023, almost 5.7 million people in Germany were in need of long-term care (Federal Statistical Office). 86 percent (Federal Statistical Office) of them were cared for at home. 3.1 million (Federal Statistical Office) received only the care allowance and were mainly looked after by relatives, while a further 1.1 million (Federal Statistical Office) were cared for together with or entirely by home care and support services. For 2025, the business statistics of the care insurance funds and private compulsory long-term care insurance count around 6.4 million benefit recipients in statutory and private long-term care insurance, around 5.5 million of them in home care (Federal Ministry of Health).
People who provide care are often in work at the same time. Of the 5.3 million family caregivers, three million were in employment (Federal Family Ministry 2023). The ministry gave these figures in July 2023 when presenting the second report of the independent advisory board on reconciling care and work. For your service, this means that many relatives looking for a care service for a parent or partner also have an employer to whom they are explaining right now why they are absent.
A need for care rarely starts according to plan. A fall, a stroke, pneumonia in a very old mother: within a few hours, what is needed at home changes. Working relatives then often do not search for the name of a care service first, but for answers to three questions. May I take time off now? Will I be paid for these days? And who will help me set up care this week? They search on the side, between work, hospital and their parents' home. A page that answers these three questions in plain sentences and is easy to read on a smartphone has a good chance of being found and read.
The answer to the third question is what a home care service does: advice, an assessment of the situation, planning the first visits. A guide page on the care support allowance links the legal position with this offer without giving legal advice. It adds a typical reason for first contact to what your website for home care services already says about services and service area. How such pages stay readable on small screens is covered in our article on the mobile care website for relatives.
What Section 2 PflegeZG allows: ten working days off
Section 2 (1) PflegeZG sets out the entitlement itself in a single sentence. It belongs on the guide page word for word, because it contains the three conditions relatives ask about. In the original German:
Beschäftigte haben das Recht, bis zu zehn Arbeitstage der Arbeit fernzubleiben, wenn dies erforderlich ist, um für einen pflegebedürftigen nahen Angehörigen in einer akut aufgetretenen Pflegesituation eine bedarfsgerechte Pflege zu organisieren oder eine pflegerische Versorgung in dieser Zeit sicherzustellen.
In short: employees may stay away from work for up to ten working days if this is necessary to organize appropriate care for a close relative in need of care in an acute care situation or to ensure care during this time. First, it concerns close relatives. The law lists them: grandparents, parents, parents-in-law and step-parents, spouses, civil partners and partners in a marriage-like or civil-partnership-like relationship, siblings, their spouses and civil partners as well as the siblings of spouses and civil partners, plus children, adopted and foster children, including those of a spouse or civil partner, children-in-law and grandchildren (Section 7 (3) PflegeZG). Friends and neighbors are not included, however close they are to the person in need of care.
Second, the person must be in need of care. For short-term absence it is enough if they are expected to meet the conditions of Sections 14 and 15 SGB XI (Section 7 (4) PflegeZG). An assessed care level is therefore not a condition. Third, the time off must be necessary to organize appropriate care or to ensure care during this period. This is where your service comes in: in practice, organizing means finding a care service, planning the visits with it and adapting the home to the new situation.
Section 2 PflegeZG sets no advance notice period. Employees must, however, tell their employer about the absence and its expected length without delay (Section 2 (2) PflegeZG). Unlike care leave under Section 3 PflegeZG, the law sets no minimum company size for short-term absence. From the notification until the end of the absence, the employer may not terminate the employment (Section 5 (1) PflegeZG).
That does not mean the time off is paid. The employer only has to continue paying wages where other statutory provisions or an agreement require it (Section 2 (3) PflegeZG), for example a collective agreement, a works agreement or the employment contract. Where that is not the case, the care support allowance takes the place of wages. On the guide page, this order fits into one sentence: first ask the employer whether pay continues, then apply to the care insurance fund.
Wording for the page
The care support allowance: pay replacement from the care fund
Anyone who cannot claim pay from their employer or sickness or injury benefit because of a child's illness or accident for the days off is entitled under Section 44a (3) SGB XI to the care support allowance for up to ten working days per calendar year (SGB XI). The entitlement is tied to the person cared for: if several employees claim short-term absence for the same relative, their combined entitlement to the allowance is limited to ten working days per calendar year in total (SGB XI). Two siblings who split the first week should know this before planning their days.
The allowance comes from the care insurance fund or private insurer of the person in need of care, not from the health insurer of the son or daughter. The application must be made without delay, together with the doctor's certificate or the certificate from a nursing professional under Section 2 (2) sentence 2 PflegeZG (Section 44a (3) SGB XI). When it grants the allowance, the care fund issues a statement of the period and amount, which the recipient hands to their employer without delay (Section 44a (5) SGB XI).
For the amount, Section 44a refers to the rules on child sickness benefit in Section 45 SGB V. The care support allowance is 90 percent (SGB V) of lost net pay. Anyone who received one-off payments subject to contributions, such as vacation or Christmas pay, in the twelve calendar months before the time off receives 100 percent (SGB V). The amount is capped at 70 percent (SGB V) of the contribution ceiling, converted to a daily figure. With a contribution ceiling for health and long-term care insurance of EUR 69,750 in 2026 (Federal Ministry of Health), that is at most EUR 135.63 gross per day (own calculation under SGB V).
The application has a consequence that relatives should know about. After an application for benefits under Section 44a, the care fund must offer a specific counseling appointment to be held within two weeks (SGB XI) of receiving the application, or issue a counseling voucher (Section 7b (1) SGB XI). On request, this counseling takes place at home. For relatives, that is another contact shortly after the application. Your page can point this out and say at the same time what your service does differently: it does not only advise, it then provides the visits.
| Point | Short-term absence (Section 2 PflegeZG) | Care support allowance (Section 44a (3) SGB XI) |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Right to stay away from work | Compensation for lost pay |
| Duration | up to ten working days | up to ten working days per calendar year, for all employees combined |
| Addressed to | Employer | Care insurance fund or private insurer of the person cared for |
| Deadline | report the absence and expected length without delay | apply without delay |
| Proof | on request, a doctor's certificate or a certificate from a nursing professional | the same certificate is attached to the application |
| Money | continued pay only under other provisions or an agreement | as a rule 90 percent of lost net pay, capped |
Since 2026: the certificate from a nursing professional
Until the end of 2025, Section 2 PflegeZG required a doctor's certificate. The Act on Extending Powers and Reducing Bureaucracy in Care amended Section 2 (2) sentence 2 PflegeZG and Section 44a (3) SGB XI; both changes have applied since 1 January 2026 (Federal Law Gazette). Since then, the sentence has read (our translation): employees must, on request, present to the employer a doctor's certificate or a certificate from a nursing professional on the relative's need for care and on the necessity of the measures. The German wording is:
Dem Arbeitgeber ist auf Verlangen eine ärztliche Bescheinigung oder eine Bescheinigung einer Pflegefachperson über die Pflegebedürftigkeit des nahen Angehörigen und die Erforderlichkeit der in Absatz 1 genannten Maßnahmen vorzulegen.
Who counts as a nursing professional is defined for long-term care insurance in Section 11 (1) SGB XI: people with a license under Section 1, Section 58 (1) or (2) or Section 64 of the Nursing Professions Act. These are registered nurses with the generalist qualification (Pflegefachfrau, Pflegefachmann), pediatric nurses, geriatric nurses and nurses whose license under the former nursing or geriatric care acts continues to apply (Sections 1, 58 and 64 PflBG). Nursing aides and nursing assistants are not included.
In substance, the certificate confirms two things: that the close relative is in need of care, for Section 2 also prospectively, and that the time off is necessary. The law does not prescribe a template. Section 2 PflegeZG governs what employees must present on request, not who is obliged to issue it. For your service, the certificate is therefore an option, not a duty, and it requires your own professional assessment.
Before the guide page mentions the offer, the care manager sets internal rules for how the service handles it. A short rule with five points makes sense:
- Who certifies: only nursing professionals within the meaning of Section 11 (1) SGB XI, as a rule the care manager and their deputy.
- On what basis: after a home visit or a detailed conversation, recorded in the care documentation or the counseling notes.
- Which template: names of the person in need of care and the employee, relationship, assessment of the need for care, necessity of the time off, expected period, date, signature with professional title.
- What stays out: diagnoses and findings. The wording does not require them, and data minimization argues for leaving them out. Employers learn that care is needed, not why.
- Billing: whether and how the service charges for the certificate is clarified in advance, for example with its association, and stated on the page before anyone calls.
For relatives, the difference is practical: they do not have to wait for an appointment at the family doctor's practice if the service's nurse is coming to the home this week anyway. For the service, the certificate is not a marketing argument but part of the first contact. Whoever issues it has seen the situation and can plan the first visits at the same time.
No certificates from a distance
The guide page: structure for the first week
The page has one job: within a few minutes, working relatives should know what to do today and recognize your service as help for the next few days. It gets its own address with the legal term in the path and a heading that describes the situation rather than the law, such as "Sudden need for care: ten working days off and the care support allowance". The first paragraph repeats the legal term so that the page is also found for it.
Situation first
One paragraph describing the situation: a close relative suddenly needs care and you have to organize it. Only then the legal references.
Three steps
Tell the employer, get a certificate, apply to the care insurance fund of the person cared for. As a numbered list, each step in one sentence.
Who counts as a relative
The list from Section 7 (3) PflegeZG in everyday language, so that grandchildren, children-in-law and partners recognize themselves.
Money and limits
Pay replacement as a rule 90 percent of net pay (SGB V), capped, at most ten working days per calendar year for all relatives combined.
Certificate from your service
The note that since 2026 a nursing professional can also certify, and under which conditions your service does so.
Review date and limits
The date of the last review, the legal references as sources and the sentence that the page provides general information and does not replace legal advice.
For the language, the same applies as for any page aimed at relatives: short sentences, one idea per sentence, explain technical terms. The law says "unverzüglich" (without undue delay); the page says "as soon as possible". Instead of "the care fund of the person in need of care", it says "your mother's or father's care fund". The phone number is tappable, font size and spacing are large enough, and a PDF is not the only way to get the information. Our service for an accessible care website sums up what matters here.
The page does not stand alone. If you already have guide pages on the care relief budget or on care courses for relatives, link the new page from there and back. In the article on care courses, Section 2 PflegeZG is an argument for attending a course; here it is the main subject, and the course page becomes the next step after the first week.
The three steps in the right order
The core of the page is a numbered list. Each step gets one sentence on what, one on how and, where it helps, a sample sentence.
- Tell the employer: right away and ideally in a way that can be proven later, for example by email. A sample sentence helps: "My mother has suddenly come to need care. Under Section 2 of the Care Leave Act, I am expected to be unable to work up to and including Friday."
- Get a certificate: from the family doctor's practice or from a care service's nursing professional. It confirms the need for care, including an expected one, and that the time off is necessary. The employer can ask for it, and the care fund needs it for the application.
- Apply for the care support allowance: to the care insurance fund of the person cared for, without delay and with the certificate. Relatives can ask the fund whether it uses its own form; the page describes the route, not a particular form.
At the same time, it is worth applying for a care level if that has not happened yet. Long-term care insurance benefits are granted from the date of application; if the application is made in a later month than the one in which the need for care arose, the fund pays from the start of the month of application (Section 33 (1) SGB XI). How to structure a page on this is shown in our article on the guide page for care level applications.
The order is the content
The call-back route for working relatives
People who work cannot take calls at any time, and the first week is full of appointments. The call-back route takes this into account. The basic form with name, phone number including availability, place of care and a privacy notice is described in our article on the guide page after a hospital stay. For a sudden care need, two of these fields carry more weight, and one is added:
- Availability: a time window such as "morning", "midday", "evening" or "any time". Someone working a shift cannot pick up when the service calls, and a missed call-back delays everything else.
- Place of care: postal code or town of the person cared for, not of the person asking. Children do not necessarily live where their parents are cared for; this way the service sees at once whether the location is within its service area.
- Certificate needed: an additional checkbox. It tells the service that the call-back also needs to schedule an assessment at home.
What does not belong in the form: diagnoses, medication, insurance numbers. Health data is a special category of personal data (Art. 9 (1) GDPR); it belongs in the conversation the service has anyway. How we handle health-related inquiries on care websites is explained in the FAQ on inquiries involving health data, and the requirements for forms and transfer on the page on data protection for care websites.
The confirmation page after submitting says who will call back and what relatives can prepare. Anyone who ticked "certificate needed" reads there which details the nursing professional needs: the names of the person cared for and of the employee, their relationship and the expected period of time off. For the call-back time, the same rule applies as after a hospital stay: only promise what the service can keep, even with a deputy, and show the phone number next to it for anything that cannot wait.
After the first week: care leave, family care leave, care level
Ten working days are enough to get care started. For the time after that, the page names the longer forms of leave in a few sentences; relatives clarify the details with the employer, the care fund or care counseling. Care leave under Section 3 PflegeZG is full or partial time off for a maximum of six months (Care Leave Act) per close relative in need of care. It does not apply to employers that normally have 15 or fewer employees (Care Leave Act) and must be announced in text form at least ten working days (Care Leave Act) before it starts. The need for care is proven here with a certificate from the care fund or the Medical Service (Section 3 (2) PflegeZG), not with the certificate from the first week.
Family care leave is partial time off for a maximum of 24 months (Family Care Leave Act), during which weekly working time must be at least 15 hours (Family Care Leave Act). The entitlement does not apply to employers that normally have 25 or fewer employees (Family Care Leave Act), not counting those employed for vocational training. Care leave and family care leave combined may not exceed 24 months (Family Care Leave Act) per close relative in need of care.
For the care level, there is a link relatives should know about. If care leave has been announced to the employer or family care leave agreed, and the person in need of care lives at home without receiving palliative care, the assessment must take place within ten working days (SGB XI) of the application being received (Section 18a (6) SGB XI). The provision does not mention short-term absence under Section 2 PflegeZG.
| Type of leave | Duration | Applies to | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Short-term absence | up to ten working days | employers with no statutory minimum size | Section 2 PflegeZG |
| Care leave | a maximum of six months | employers that normally have more than 15 employees | Sections 3 and 4 PflegeZG |
| Family care leave | a maximum of 24 months, at least 15 hours per week | employers that normally have more than 25 employees | Section 2 FPfZG |
On the guide page, a short paragraph with a reference to care counseling is enough. If you show the details as a table, check them again with every new review date.
Your own team: the same rule in the duty roster
Home care services are employers themselves, and their staff may be family caregivers too. Section 2 PflegeZG applies to them in the same way: if a nurse's mother suddenly needs care, the nurse is missing from the roster with no notice. Anyone writing a guide page for relatives should know the service's own rule for this case: who covers, who informs the clients and whether the service offers anything beyond the law, such as paid time off under an agreement.
Such benefits do not belong on the guide page for relatives but on the careers page. How to present employee benefits there so that they are accurate and understood is covered in our article on employee benefits on the nursing careers page. For applicants who care for relatives themselves, a reliable way of handling this situation can be a reason to apply.
Getting found: search terms, FAQ and links
The legal term is unwieldy. People who do not know it search in their own words, such as "sudden care need time off work", "leave to care for a relative" or "pay while caring for a parent". The legal term therefore belongs in the title, description and first paragraph, the everyday phrases in subheadings and questions.
An FAQ block answers the questions that follow directly from the law: how many days, who pays, which certificate, whether it also applies in small companies, whether siblings can share the days and whether a care level is needed. It gets exactly one FAQPage schema. The page title names the location of your service area; how this works together with the business profile is described on our page on local SEO for care services.
Link the page from the service page on counseling, from the contact page and from the other guide pages. In the inquiry log, each call-back that comes in via this page gets its own tag. After a few months, you can see how many first contacts arise from sudden care needs.
Setting up the page in five steps
- Agree a rule on certificates: who certifies, who covers, which template, how it is documented and whether it is billed.
- Write the copy: situation, three steps, money and limits, certificate, next routes, each with legal references and review date.
- Adapt the call-back route: availability, location of the person cared for, checkbox for the certificate, no health fields.
- Link: from the service page, contact page and other guide pages, and back from there.
- Maintain: the contribution ceiling and therefore the maximum amount usually change at the turn of the year. Check once a year and update the review date.
What the page does not promise also belongs on it. It does not say that anyone is entitled, but under which conditions the law provides for an entitlement. It does not state amounts as a commitment, because the care fund decides on the care support allowance. And for individual cases, it refers to the employer, the care fund and care counseling.
If you do not want to build the page yourself: we create guide pages like this as part of your care website, with copy approved by your care manager and a call-back route that fits your processes. For an initial assessment, reach us via the contact page.
Sources and legal texts
Related Articles
Complaints in home care: the feedback form on your website
The MuG ambulant in force since 1 July 2026 still require complaints management. Your care website as the way in for relatives: form, call-back, reply time.
ePA in care: what relatives want to know about access
The ePA in care: what the care service sees, who adds entries, how relatives object or act as representatives, and how a guide page answers these questions.
Employer reviews in care: responding to criticism calmly
Criticism of rosters or onboarding: how a care service replies to employer reviews without personal data and puts them in context on its careers page.