« Stiftung Warentest Finance »: Cheap BU alternative: This is what the basic capacity policies do

In addition to private liability, occupational disability insurance (BU) is one of the most important security. She makes financial compensation if working people can no longer pursue their job due to an accident or illness.

The problem: Protection can be very expensive, especially for people with physically exhausting professions. If you have certain previous illnesses, you may not get it at all. For all of them, a basic capacity insurance can be a good alternative, advises the magazine «Stiftung Warentest Finances »(7/2025).

What the policy does

The basic capacity insurance promises an agreed pensionIf insured persons lose certain basic skills – for example seeing, walking, speaking, operating keyboard or driving. Whether the traditional profession can still be carried out or not does not matter.

The basic capacity insurance is usually cheaper, but also not quite as powerful as a BU, according to the goods testers. Protection on mental illness often has to be completed.

A good three dozen policies in the test – more than half convinced

The Stiftung Warentest took a close look at 37 such insurance from 19 different providers. She wanted to find out how good the policies are and how much they cost for an employed 25-year-old person if a monthly pension of 1,500 euros is to flow in the event of damage. The testers have oriented themselves to professional groups that conclude such a policy comparatively often: educators, mechatronics engineers, nursing staff and professional drivers.

The result: 20 of the examined tariffs offer a high or very high level of performance, 17 only a medium or low.

The cheapest among the good tariffs (with protection of mental illnesses) are called Hannoversche basic insurance Premium (861 euros a year), Baloise bronze (883 euros), R+V basic insurance premium (927 euros) and Allianz body protection policy (992 euros). The most expensive tariffs in the test cost up to 1,519 euros a year.