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Enter a Safe Haven with the Social Insurance for Seafarers
Insurance Cover for Everyone on Board
The KBS social insurance for seafarers offers seafarers security. Social security. If you need to go from board much too early and because you are no longer able to do your work without you being entitled to a state pension for example. It is also the case in these stormy waters that the KBS Social Insurance for Seafarers supports the seafarers and tows them into a safe haven.
About the Social Insurance for Seafarers
Information:
Many thanks for your interest in the Social Insurance for Seafarers.
You will notice that we make continuous use of the terms “seafarer“ and “seamen“ in the following information and explanations. This is due to the historically evolved professional titles so that they are typically connected to seafaring. The terms “seafarer“ and “seamen“ that we use are value-neutral and gender-neutral. They refer to all of the seafaring crew members.
"Out on the ocean with the cutter at night, in all weathers – I can´t do that at 58 anymore but I do not have to worry about my provision for old age – thanks to the Social Insurance for Seafarers."
Social Insurance for Seafarers? What it is about
Work on board and at sea is hard and strenuous. It plays havoc with the bones and impairs the health. Not every seaman is able to work until he reaches retirement age. And then? This is where the KBS Social Insurance for Seafarers comes in: it pays a “seaman´s pension”. This is a transitional benefit that seafarers are paid until they are entitled to a state pension. What happens if a seaman becomes unemployed at the age of 56? The Social Insurance for Seafarers then tops up the unemployment benefit I subject to certain conditions. The Social Insurance for Seafarers therefore “fills in” the hole left in the provision for old age and provides social protection at the same time. The Social Insurance for Seafarers also offers additional benefits to seafarers who receive a pension when they retire from seafaring.
Seafaring obliges
The KBS Social Insurance for Seafarers is a compulsory insurance. It was established by the seafaring occupational accident insurance in 1974 before being integrated in the Deutsche Rentenversicherung Knappschaft-Bahn-See pension insurance in 2009.
Who is a member of the Social Insurance for Seafarers?
All seafarers who sail on ships under a German flag can avail themselves of the special protection provided by the Social Insurance for Seafarers, but coastal seamen and coastal fishers can also benefit for this. The important thing is that they are all members of a state pensions insurance and that they practice their profession as their main occupation.