The number of self-employed persons in favor of compulsory occupational disability insurance (AOV) is decreasing. This is the conclusion of the Knab bank based on its own research among 1500 independent entrepreneurs.
Two years ago, 41 percent of the respondents in a similar survey by Knab indicated that they were in favor of a mandatory AOV. Now only 36 percent support making it mandatory. In a government plan, which is expected to come into effect in 2027, self-employed persons who have not arranged anything are obliged to take out an AOV at a premium of approximately 8 percent of their income. A possible benefit – which will be around the minimum wage – only starts after a waiting period of probably one year.
Knab believes that the proposed one-year waiting period is particularly disturbing for many entrepreneurs. If the government were to shorten that waiting period, support from self-employed persons would increase to 57 percent.
No financial safety net
The survey shows that many self-employed persons have not arranged anything. For example, 42 percent say they have no financial safety net for disability. Of that group, four out of ten self-employed persons would not be able to keep their heads above water for more than a year without entrepreneurial income.
Of the 1500 respondents, 22 percent say they have an AOV, 9 percent are affiliated with a bread fund and 4 percent have insurance through crowdsurance. 20 percent of the self-employed say they have sufficient equity to absorb the consequences of incapacity for work.
Knab director Nadine Klokke sees the large number of uninsured self-employed persons as a social problem that needs to be solved. The bank therefore also supports the idea of an obligation, but with the important condition that both the premium and the waiting time are reduced. “To achieve both, our advice is: make the AOV compulsory for all workers, not just for the self-employed. And at the same time ensure that the number of bogus self-employed people is reduced. In this way, the big companies contribute a fairer share to the social system.”
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