Germany: What Labour Market Exclusion Costs the State
What it costs the state in disability and sickness benefits when people are kept out of work, compared across European countries.
Country Profile
Direct benefit payments
BMAS Sozialbudget 2024 — function Invalidität, cash benefits, 2023 (provisional), plus statutory Krankengeld 2023 (BMG KV45) · 2023
→ Disability pension
Deutsche Rentenversicherung Bund, Rentenversicherung in Zeitreihen 2025 — pensions for reduced earning capacity, 2023 · 2023
→ Sickness benefit
BMG, GKV vorläufige Rechnungsergebnisse 1.–4. Quartal 2023 (KV45) — Krankengeld · 2023
Local currency: €83.4bn
Per working-age adult
€1,573
Context
Germany's disability cash benefits include pensions for reduced earning capacity (Erwerbsminderungsrente, €22.4bn; 1,761,252 pensions at the end of 2023). Sick pay for the first weeks of illness is paid by employers (Entgeltfortzahlung) and is excluded, as in the other countries.
Methodology
Public cash benefits for disability (Sozialbudget function Invalidität, €68.0bn) and statutory sickness benefit (Krankengeld, €15.3bn) in 2023, the latest year with outturn data. Employer sick pay, in-kind disability support, lost tax revenue and employment-programme costs are not included. Share of GDP uses Eurostat GDP for 2023; per working-age adult means per person aged 15–64 (Eurostat, 1 January 2023).
In Practice
A real organisation putting this into practice.
Mercedes-Benz employs nearly 9,000 people with disabilities across its group companies
~9,000 employees with disabilities · 100+ trainees with disabilities over 5 years
Learn moreThe tech company that decided the interview was the real problem
215+ autistic employees · Program active in 16 countries
Learn more