Who stays at home because of the sick child? The imbalance between working mothers and fathers is still clear. Evaluations by the health insurance companies show that the weight has recently shifted back towards women.
Magdeburg (dpa/sa) – The care of sick children is again more often a woman’s job in Saxony-Anhalt. Several health insurance companies have noticed the trend that working fathers have recently claimed less daily child sickness benefit.
According to an evaluation by the AOK, which has the largest number of members in the country, mothers took 70 percent of all days from January to August 2021, and 73 percent in the same period of this year. Overall, more child sickness benefit days were claimed. The plus was around 24 percent at the AOK Saxony-Anhalt.
The KKH Kaufmännische Krankenkasse has also reported the trend: the number of working fathers in Saxony-Anhalt who take time off to look after their sick children has fallen for the first time. In the first six months of 2022, around 23 percent of fathers claimed daily child sickness benefits. In the same period last year, the rate was still 27 percent. The proportion of mothers has increased accordingly.
The KKH sees a possible reason in the corona loosening in the current year. They would have brought more normality back to daycare, school and everyday work. In the first half of 2022, only around one in six affected fathers with KKH insurance in Saxony-Anhalt took child sick days due to the pandemic, in the first half of 2021 it was still more than a third of the fathers.
Barmer also recorded an increase in women who use child sickness benefits. The proportion of fathers fell from 27 to 26 percent from the first half of 2021 to the second half of 2022. Women claimed 75 percent of child sick pay days, men 25 percent. “Our analysis shows that women in families often still bear the brunt of childcare. They stay at home much more often and take care of the children more often than men,” explained Barmer’s state manager Axel Wiedemann.
