Once-Only Principle: Digital Data Retrieval Process for Long-Term Care Insurance

A tangible relief for families raising children – since July 2023, the Act on Support and Relief in Long-Term Care (PUEG) has taken into account the age and number of children of insured individuals when calculating contributions to statutory long-term care insurance. While this creates financial breathing room for parents, it also leads to more bureaucracy – at least temporarily. Proof of parenthood and information about the children are required. Previously, documents such as birth certificates had to be submitted to the employer, who often entered the data manually into payroll software.

To implement the process efficiently and in a citizen-friendly manner, the PUEG requires that a digital procedure for verifying eligible children be implemented by March 31, 2025. To this end, the Data Exchange for Contribution Differentiation in Social Long-Term Care Insurance (DaBPV) is available to contribution-paying agencies.

The Federal Ministry of the Interior and Homeland (BMI) commissioned us to develop core components for the DaBPV. Our contribution to the overall project ensures that contribution-collecting agencies can calculate the correct contributions for statutory long-term care insurance without having to request proof from the insured. 

The Implementation Concept

To ensure accurate payroll processing, employers obtain a great deal of information through the electronic payroll tax deduction codes (ELStAM) provided by the Federal Central Tax Office (BZSt). Entries in the population register, as well as the birth of a child, are thus automatically taken into account for payroll tax withholding. This is where the DaBPV procedure comes into play.

Using the insured person’s tax ID and date of birth, the entity responsible for paying contributions can automatically query how many children need to be taken into account. Using the technical response, the payroll software calculates the long-term care insurance contribution. The initial request sets up change notifications as a subscription. Thus, future changes in parental status or the number of eligible children are automatically reported to employers and insurance carriers via a push notification process.

Complex development project

The DaBPV involves four federal ministries, numerous subordinate agencies, and, indirectly, all employers and pension providers. The functional and technical requirements for the project, which serves millions of German citizens, are correspondingly complex.

At ]init[, specialists from the fields of project management, consulting, business analysis, development, DevOps, and QA developed the application for the digital retrieval process. At the heart of the system architecture is the “PUEG Satellite.” It receives requests from employers or pension insurance providers, validates the tax ID via the BZSt’s automated query process, and manages the information regarding parental status and the number of children transmitted by the ELStAM process. Through a digital return channel, the contribution-paying agencies receive the requested information from the German Pension Insurance (DRV).

To support the process, we also further developed the “BagEL” dialog system. It facilitates communication at the interface between employers, the DRV, and the BZSt. Any queries can thus be resolved simply and efficiently.

Since the system must interact seamlessly with the ELStAM system and the DRV’s systems, our testers also supported the implementation and adaptation of the necessary system components for the project partners.

A prime example of "once-only"

The simplified digital document retrieval system implements the "once-only" principle. It relieves affected citizens of the burden of providing documents or data that are already on file with the government. It also relieves contributing agencies of the burden of requesting and verifying documents. Another strength of our project is that data is retrieved according to RegMo maturity level D – the highest maturity level under the registry modernization initiative. The developed solution is thus future-proof and benefits citizens, businesses, and the administration alike.