Wiesbaden (dpa/lhe) – In Hesse, significantly more people received social care insurance benefits last year. At the end of 2021 there were a total of 368,400, as reported by the State Statistical Office in Wiesbaden on Wednesday. That was about a fifth more than in 2019 at the last survey of this kind.
The largest proportion of those in need of care were people over 60 years of age at 83 percent. At 62 percent, women were significantly more represented than men (38 percent) among the benefit recipients. 312,600 people, more than two thirds of those in need of care in Hesse, were cared for at home in 2021 – almost a quarter more than in the same year 2019. In these cases, relatives were mostly responsible for the care.
In view of the increase in people in need of care, the social association VdK Hessen-Thüringen called for an increase in the care allowance and more advice and support for caregiving households. “Relatives are the backbone in care, without which the care of the many people in need of care would collapse,” said state chairman Paul Weimann after a statement. “That’s why they urgently need more support – financially, but also to relieve them in their mostly exhausting everyday life.”
There was also a slight increase in Hessian care facilities. Last year there were four percent more nursing homes than in 2019. With 89,000 people, more staff were available than in the same year. As is usual in professions in the social and health sectors, the percentage of women employed remained consistently high at 82 percent.
A subject-specific professional qualification is not compulsory. Almost half of the Hessian nursing staff had no or a non-specialist professional qualification in the past year. That is around 16 percent more than in 2019. Only every second nurse had a degree in a nursing profession. The rest, around 4700 people, consisted of trainees and people who are being retrained. As in 2019, around a third of trainees or people undergoing retraining in 2021 were 30 years or older.
