In short and in plain language
This article is about a page on care aids. These are things like gloves for care at home.
Such a page can reach families who do not have a care service yet. It can be their first contact with you.
The article explains what belongs on this page. It also shows what the page should not claim.
The form works without any health details. The first contact can lead to a talk about care.
We build this page for you.
A home care service usually explains everything on its website that applies from care level 2 onwards: basic care, doctor-prescribed nursing care, respite care, day care. The household that has not yet engaged a service at all finds nothing there that applies to it today. Yet there is exactly one benefit that works without a doctor's prescription, without a co-payment and already at care level 1: the consumable care aids under Section 40 (2) SGB XI, worth up to 42 euros (Federal Ministry of Justice) a month. In December 2023 alone, 640,000 (Federal Statistical Office) people at care level 1 used no services from nursing homes or home care services at all. For those households, a dedicated service page on care aids is the lowest-threshold first contact a care website can offer. This article sets out what belongs on that page, which amounts and deadlines are stated correctly there, and how a form turns into a connection to the actual care relationship.
Key takeaways
- The long-term care fund covers consumable care aids with up to 42 euros (Section 40 (2) SGB XI) a month. No prescription from a panel doctor is required for this, and no co-payment is charged either.
- Care level 1 (Section 28a SGB XI) is enough: the supply of care aids and the grants for the home environment are explicitly listed among the benefits at care level 1.
- For measures that improve the home environment, the funds may grant up to 4,180 euros (Section 40 (4) SGB XI) per measure; where several eligible people live together, the total per measure is capped at 16,720 euros (Section 40 (4) SGB XI).
- The fund decides within three weeks (Section 40 (7) SGB XI) at the latest, or within five weeks (Section 40 (7) SGB XI) where a nursing professional or the Medical Service is involved. If no reason is given, the benefit counts as approved once the deadline has passed.
- In December 2023, 640,000 (Federal Statistical Office) people at care level 1 used no services from homes or home care providers. Compared with December 2021, that group grew by 21 percent (Federal Statistical Office).
- The co-payment of at most 25 euros (Section 40 (3) SGB XI) per care aid expressly does not apply to the consumable aids under subsection 2. That single sentence answers the most frequent question on the phone.
Why care aids open the first contact
In December 2023, just under 5.7 million (Federal Statistical Office) people in Germany were classified as in need of long-term care under the German long-term care insurance act, and 86 percent (Federal Statistical Office) of them were cared for at home. 1.1 million (Federal Statistical Office) of those people lived in private households and were cared for together with or entirely by outpatient care and support services; that is the group your existing service pages reach today. Alongside it stands a second, far quieter group: 680,000 (Federal Statistical Office) people at care level 1 were likewise cared for at home, and 640,000 (Federal Statistical Office) of them used no services at all from nursing homes or home care services in December 2023. Compared with December 2021, that group grew by 21 percent (Federal Statistical Office), or 118,000 (Federal Statistical Office) people. Anyone whose website only offers something from care level 2 onwards is not speaking to this group. How the path there begins in the first place is described in our article on the guide page about applying for a care level.
A service page on care aids answers a question relatives actually ask, and they ask it before they think about a care service: who pays for the disposable gloves, the bed protection pads and the disinfectant that have been coming out of the family's own pocket for weeks? In its methodological notes, the Federal Statistical Office explicitly points out that care aids and improvements to the home environment are among the benefits at care level 1 but are not covered by the care statistics. Your page sits precisely in that gap: a benefit many people are entitled to, which appears in no statistic and which almost nobody talks about. The content this readership expects anyway is collected in our article on care website content for relatives.
A benefit without a doctor, without a co-payment, below care level 2
What the monthly package contains and what it does not
The statute is short and unambiguous at this point: the expenditure of the long-term care funds on care aids intended for consumption may not exceed 42 euros (Section 40 (2) SGB XI) per month, and the benefit may also be provided as a reimbursement of costs. What counts as a care aid is defined one subsection earlier: an aid that helps to ease the care, to relieve the symptoms or to enable a more independent way of life. Which products are settled in an individual case is not decided by your website but by the long-term care fund. Your page names examples, the amount and the route, in that order.
- The amount is a monthly ceiling, not an annual budget. The expenditure may not exceed 42 euros (Section 40 (2) SGB XI) per month. An unused month does not carry over into the next one; that belongs in the explanatory text, because it is the most common misconception on the phone.
- No co-payment on consumables. The co-payment of ten per cent, capped at 25 euros (Section 40 (3) SGB XI) per care aid, expressly does not apply to the aids under subsection 2. Putting that difference on the page takes one question off the front desk.
- Technical aids work differently. Nursing beds, home emergency call systems or wheelchairs are to be provided by the funds on loan as a matter of priority (Section 40 (3) SGB XI) in all suitable cases. The consumable is delivered, the technical aid is usually lent: two routes that belong cleanly separated on one page.
- Extra costs stay with the insured person. Anyone who chooses equipment that goes beyond what is necessary bears the additional and consequential costs (Section 40 (1) SGB XI) themselves. One sentence on this prevents disappointment after delivery.
- Do not confuse it with the relief amount. The relief amount of up to 131 euros (Section 45b SGB XI) a month is a different benefit with a different purpose. We treated it separately in the article on the care relief budget on guide pages.
- Digital care applications are a separate pot. Up to 40 euros (Section 40b SGB XI) per calendar month are available for them, plus up to 30 euros (Section 40b SGB XI) for supplementary support by outpatient providers. On the page that belongs in a line of its own, not in the same paragraph.
Who is entitled and who files the application
Entitlement depends on the care level, not on a diagnosis. Section 28a SGB XI lists the benefits at care level 1 (Section 28a SGB XI) one by one, and the supply of care aids appears in it just as the financial grants for measures improving the individual or shared home environment do. For a service page that means: the first sentence names care level 1, not care level 2. The opposite case, a benefit that does not work without a doctor's prescription at all, is described in our article on doctor-prescribed nursing care on the website; the two pages belong side by side, because relatives do not know the difference.
- Care level 1 is enough. The supply of care aids is expressly named in the list of benefits at care level 1 (Section 28a SGB XI). That line is the strongest argument on the whole page and belongs above the first scroll.
- Home care is the condition, not a service contract. The benefit does not presuppose ongoing care by an outpatient provider. Writing that openly loses you no contract; it wins you a conversation that would otherwise never have happened.
- A nursing professional's recommendation can replace the prescription. Where a care aid is recommended by a nursing professional when the application is filed, no prescription from a panel doctor is required; the recommendation may be no older than two weeks (Section 40 (6) SGB XI) at the time of application. That narrow window is the reason the form should sit on the page itself.
- Family carers count too. The consumables also serve to protect the carer. Gloves and protective aprons are not a comfort but occupational safety at the kitchen table, and that is exactly how it should be phrased.
- The application goes to the fund, not to you. The page may say so plainly. What your service contributes is the advice, the help with filling it in and, if you offer it, the delivery and the settlement.
- A form without health data gets further. Name, phone number, care level known yes or no: the first step needs no more than that. Which fields become sensitive under data protection law is set out in our article on forms and data protection in care.
Six building blocks of the service page
A page that turns a benefit into a contact has six parts. They can be hung into any existing navigation and require no rebuild: a subpage under the services, an entry in the menu, a reference from the home page. If you also want the page to be found locally, the details are in our article on local discoverability for care services.
Example list
Six to ten products in everyday language instead of the labels from the official aids register. Someone who reads bed protection pad recognises their need; someone who reads a product group number closes the page.
Amount and limit
42 euros a month, no co-payment, no carry-over into the following month. Three sentences that pre-empt three follow-up questions, and precisely the three that otherwise end up on the phone.
Entitlement first
Care level 1 is enough, home care is enough, no service contract is needed. This line sits above the first scroll, because it decides whether anyone reads on.
Application help
Who files the application, what the fund needs, what your service takes on. A numbered sequence of four steps beats any block of prose.
Deadline visible
Three weeks, or five where the Medical Service is involved. A statutory deadline that is actually named reassures more than any promise you could make yourself.
The next step
A form with three fields, a call-back window and a reference to the advisory visit and the service overview. First contact is the beginning, not the goal.
Improving the home: grab rail, ramp, bathroom conversion
The second benefit on the same page is the grant for measures that improve the individual home environment. The statute is worded more cautiously here than for the consumables package: the funds may grant financial support on a subsidiary basis where, in the individual case, this makes home care possible or considerably easier, or restores a way of life that is as independent as possible. That qualification belongs on the page in substance, otherwise a discretionary benefit turns into a promise nobody can keep.
- The amount is in the statute. The grants may not exceed 4,180 euros (Section 40 (4) SGB XI) per measure. That single figure is the one relatives remember, which is why it belongs in a line of its own and not in a subordinate clause.
- Several people in need of care in one flat. Where several people in need of care live together, the amount of 4,180 euros (Section 40 (4) SGB XI) applies per person; the total per measure is capped at 16,720 euros (Section 40 (4) SGB XI) and is split proportionally where there are more than four eligible people. For shared care housing, that is the decisive sentence.
- Per measure, not once in a lifetime. If the care situation changes, a further measure may come into consideration. The page phrases that conditionally, because the decision rests with the fund and not with you.
- Examples beat terms. A grab rail beside the toilet, a level-access shower, a ramp at the front door, a widened doorway, a stairlift. Anyone who writes only home-environment-improving measure instead loses the reader in the first sentence.
- Ask first, then build. The fund decides on an application, not on an invoice that has already been paid. The page therefore advises filing the application before the measure begins, and names the statutory decision deadline right next to it.
- The grant is subsidiary. Other benefit providers come first, and the fund examines the individual case. Leaving that out produces follow-up calls after the rejection instead of contacts before the application.
Deadlines that belong on the page
Most pages about care aids stop at the amount. Yet it is the deadline that moves a household to act. Section 40 (7) SGB XI obliges the fund to decide promptly on an application for care aids or for grants towards home-improving measures, at the latest within three weeks (Section 40 (7) SGB XI) of the application being received. Where a nursing professional or the Medical Service is involved, it is five weeks (Section 40 (7) SGB XI). If the fund cannot meet the deadline, it must say so in writing in good time, setting out the reasons; if that notification fails to arrive, the benefit counts as approved (Section 40 (7) SGB XI). Four sentences that appear on hardly any page and belong on every one.
| Benefit | Legal basis | Amount | Route and deadline |
|---|---|---|---|
| Consumable care aids | Section 40 (2) SGB XI | up to 42 euros per month, no co-payment | application to the fund, decision within three weeks |
| Technical care aids | Section 40 (3) SGB XI | co-payment of ten per cent, at most 25 euros per aid | on loan as a matter of priority, application to the fund |
| Improving the home environment | Section 40 (4) SGB XI | up to 4,180 euros per measure | discretionary, decision within three weeks, with the Medical Service five weeks |
| Shared flat with several people in need of care | Section 40 (4) SGB XI | 4,180 euros per person, total per measure 16,720 euros | split among the insurance providers of the eligible people |
| Digital care applications | Section 40b SGB XI | up to 40 euros per month, plus up to 30 euros supplementary support | approval by the long-term care fund |
A table like this is not decoration but the short version relatives photograph and forward. It only works if it stays readable on a phone and does not run off sideways; how that is solved technically is described in our article on the practical implementation of an accessible care website. If you also want the amounts calculated on the page, the structure is set out in our article on the cost calculator on a care website.
What the page must not claim
A service page about a social benefit is a statement about somebody else's law. That makes it delicate: every simplification that would be harmless in conversation becomes a promise on the page, and a promise somebody else would have to keep. Six formulations regularly go too far, and all six can be replaced without any loss of clarity.
- No promise about approval. The home adaptation grant is discretionary and the fund decides in the individual case. The page should say as a rule instead of always.
- No date without a basis. The decision deadline is in the statute; your supplier's delivery time is not. What you do not control yourself is not promised as a deadline on the page.
- No product list as a catalogue. Examples are examples. Which products are settled is decided by the fund on the basis of the official aids register, and that changes without any involvement of yours.
- No amounts without a reference. The amounts are in the statute and are amended there. The page therefore puts the subsection next to the figure, so a reader can look the statement up for themselves.
- No health data in the form. Diagnosis, medication and care records do not belong in a web form. First contact needs a phone number, not a clinical picture.
- No third-party product names in the explanatory text. Brands tie you to one supplier and age faster than the page does. The generic term is enough and stays correct when the supplier changes.
The most expensive sentence is the friendliest one
From first contact to ongoing care
An application for care aids is an occasion, not an assignment. The value of the page only emerges at the second step, and that step is already provided for in the law: people at care level 1 are entitled to call up an advisory session in their own home once every six months (Section 37 (3) SGB XI), and Section 28a SGB XI lists that advisory session expressly among the benefits at care level 1. Anyone who accompanies the application for care aids is therefore already standing at the door behind which the next benefit lies. So that this step is not lost, the page needs a visible next step on it and a process agreed inside the organisation. Neither costs technology; both cost a decision.
- A call-back with a time window. Not as soon as possible but on working days until 4 pm. A named window is either kept or conspicuously broken; both are better than a vague promise. If you would rather have appointments booked, the route runs via online appointment booking.
- One person, one deputy. Whoever handles applications is in the duty roster. Without a named deputy the application sits over the weekend in an inbox nobody opens on those days.
- The second step is prepared. Whoever accompanies the application asks about the advisory visit at the end. That is not a sales pitch but the next benefit in the same chain.
- No capacity, contact anyway. If you currently cannot take on another round, the application still makes sense. How that becomes a waiting list instead of a refusal is set out in its own article.
- Figures instead of feelings. Applications per month, call-backs, advisory visits arising from them. Three lines in a table are enough to know after one quarter whether the page carries.
- The page survives a change of owner. Whoever takes over a service also takes over this route; what to watch out for is described in our article on the change of owner.
The test for the finished page takes two minutes. Open it on a phone and picture a daughter searching in the evening for the words bed protection pad. If she finds the amount, the care level and a form with three fields in the first twenty lines, the page is working for you. If she finds a block of statute without figures and a general contact address, she calls her long-term care fund the next morning, and the contact happens somewhere else. If you would rather not build this route alongside the daily business, we take it on as part of a website for home care services or as part of a new care website; the way in is our contact page.
Sources and statutory references
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