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Calculate your care workload: how much time does caring really cost?
People caring for a relative at home almost always underestimate what it costs them: three visits a week including travel quickly add up to several working weeks a year. Work out your actual care workload in hours — and see how many days you get back if a care service takes over individual visits.
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Family care happens on the side — before work, after work, at the weekend. Which is exactly why there is usually no sense of the total. This calculator turns it into an honest annual figure: visits per week × (care and help time + the journey there and back), projected into hours, 8-hour working days and working weeks.
One thing to be clear about: since 2017, minutes of care do NOT determine the care level any more — only independence in everyday life does (that is what the care level calculator is for). The number of hours here is still the most important figure in your planning: it puts a number on what caring costs you in lifetime, and it is the basis of every conversation with family, employer, care insurance fund or welfare office.
The second step is the decisive one: with the slider you mentally hand individual visits over to a care service and see straight away how many days a year you get back. If you like, take the result straight into the combined benefits calculator — that shows, at real Berlin prices, what it costs and how much care allowance is left.
Good to know
- The whole workload is counted: care and help time AND travel time — both are your lifetime
- The result is given in annual hours, 8-hour working days and working weeks (for comparison: statutory minimum annual leave is 20 working days)
- Time spent does not determine the care level — since 2017 independence is what counts (§ 15 SGB XI); the care level calculator estimates the level
- Not to be confused with “Pflegezeit” under the German Care Leave Act: that is leave from your job, not the workload at home
- Hand the result straight to the combined benefits calculator: what does relief cost, and what is left of the care allowance?
- The care insurance fund pays for additional relief: respite care from the joint annual amount (up to €3,539 a year) and the relief amount (€131 a month)
How the calculator works
- Describe your week: Visits per week, average hours per visit, one-way travel time in minutes.
- Read the annual balance: Hours per year, converted into working days and working weeks.
- Simulate relief: Slider: “Sonnenstrahlen takes over X visits a week” — with a direct handover to the combined benefits calculator.
Frequently asked questions about care workload
What is meant by care workload?
The time the care actually costs: personal care, dressing, meals, medication, laundry, shopping, doctor's appointments, letters from the authorities — and the journeys involved. This calculator sums that into one figure per year instead of splitting it into individual tasks: for planning, the total is what counts, not the list.
Does the care workload determine my care level?
No, not any more. Until 2016 care levels were determined by minutes of care; since 2017 the assessment looks exclusively at independence across six modules (§ 15 SGB XI). A high time burden is therefore not evidence of a higher level — but it is a strong argument for organising relief. Our care level calculator estimates which level is realistic.
I am looking for Pflegezeit under the Care Leave Act — am I in the right place?
Partly. “Pflegezeit” is the fixed legal term of the German Care Leave Act (PflegeZG): leave from work to care for a close relative — from short-term absence (§ 2 PflegeZG) to care leave (§ 3 PflegeZG) and family care leave (FPfZG). Your contacts for that are your employer and your care insurance fund, not this calculator. What it gives you for exactly that conversation is the solid number: how many hours and working days the care really costs per year.
Does travel really count as care workload?
For your life planning: yes. The hour on the bus or in the car is just as gone as the hour at the bedside. The calculator therefore counts the journey there and back for every visit — if you see it differently, simply set the travel time to 0.
What is the point of converting into working days?
An honest yardstick. “400 hours a year” stays abstract — “50 working days, two and a half times the statutory annual leave” does not. That figure also helps in conversations with employers, family or the care insurance fund.
What relief does the care insurance fund pay for?
Three pots: from care level 2, care service visits can run through the services budget (§ 36) — as combined benefits, a proportional care allowance is retained. On top comes the relief amount (€131 a month, from care level 1). And if you as the carer are unavailable or need a holiday: respite care from the joint annual amount of up to €3,539 a year (since 1 July 2025, up to 8 weeks).
I don't want to hand over all the care — is partial possible?
That is exactly what combined benefits are for: the care service takes over, say, the morning care on weekdays, the family does the rest — and the care allowance continues proportionally. Many families start with two or three visits a week.
Sources & legal position
The workload calculation uses only your own entries. Which relief the care insurance fund pays for is set out in the Federal Ministry's guide to care at home; on respite care and the joint annual amount, see the Federal Ministry of Health and § 42a SGB XI. Legal position as of August 2026.
From the calculator to real relief
Sonnenstrahlen is a licensed care service with three offices in Berlin. We will work through your care situation concretely and without obligation — at the same rates as in this calculator — and can take over at short notice. Advice in German, English and Russian.
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