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MONEY

What to know about German parcel delivery price hikes

People sending packages in Germany face higher costs after Deutsche Post subsidiary DHL announced it will increase prices from July.

Published: 13 June 2022 17:13 CEST
A DHL employee carries a package for delivery in Germany.
A DHL employee carries a package for delivery in Germany. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Sebastian Gollnow

Under the changes, sending some packages will become more expensive, both within Germany and internationally.

Logistics group DHL said the price hikes were due to several factors. 

“Increased transport, delivery and wage costs, as well as general cost increases, make price rises in national and cross-border parcel shipping unavoidable,” the company said. 

Meanwhile, there will no longer be a price advantage for buying parcel and package stamps online for domestic shipments. 

The different prices for labels bought online or in store will remain in place for international-bound parcels.

The changes come into force on July 1st.

READ ALSO: EXPLAINED: Why people in Germany are being charged to receive small parcels from outside the EU

What are the changes for domestic-bound packages?

The branch and online prices in the product category ‘Päckchen S’ will rise to €3.99 from €3.79.

The price for ‘Päckchen M’ will be €4.79 from July, up from €4.50 for a store-bought label, and €4.39 online. 

The price for the two-kilogram parcel, which is only available online, will rise to €5.49 from €4.99.

Packset and Pluspäckchen products will also cost slightly more due to the increase in paper costs, said DHL. 

However, the price to send a 5kg parcel is going down – it will be €6.99 instead of €7.49.

Prices for the 10kg and 31.5kg parcels will remain unchanged.

A DHL delivery worker carries packages.

A DHL delivery worker carries packages. Photo: picture alliance/dpa/dpa-Zentralbild | Jan Woitas

What’s changing for sending packages abroad?

The cost of many cross-border parcel and small package shipments from Germany will also increase. The logistics company said that’s because of the hike in flight rates as well as higher costs charged by other delivery firms.

The firm said it was “partially passing on to customers what are in some cases steep increases in airfares and the substantial rise in costs charged by delivery partners abroad”. 

There are particularly large price hikes for shipments to the United States.

For instance, from July it will cost €49.99 to send a package weighing up to 5kg to the US (zone 5 in Deutsche Post’s price chart) rather than €38.99. The online price for the same product will be €47.99 instead of €36.99.

The price of sending a packet weighing up to 10kg to the US will go up to €79.99 instead of €54.99. 

For an overview of the new prices, check out this chart. 

READ ALSO: How to challenge high import fees on non-EU parcels in Germany

Are there any other changes to know about?

Deutsche Post says the €1.70 customs data entry fee for shipments to non-EU countries franked at retail outlets will no longer apply from July 1st.

Instead, it will be incorporated directly into the respective retail outlet prices for non-EU shipments at a rate of €1.

The company is also pushing its sustainability strategy, with its GoGreen service being included for all products from July 1st, 2022, without customers having to pay a surcharge. “This is already the case for domestic parcel shipments,” said the firm. 

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HEALTH

Why long-term care insurance fees are likely to rise in Germany next year

Social contributions could be set to rise yet again in Germany with a potential hike in the cost of long-term care insurance. Here's what you need to know.

Published: 28 May 2024 13:32 CEST
Why long-term care insurance fees are likely to rise in Germany next year

Following a rise in additional health insurance fees at the start of the year, insurance funds have warned that a further hike in fees could be needed.

Speaking to the regional Rheinische Post, several statutory funds revealed that rising costs could be placed on the shoulders of workers in Germany as early as next year. 

Why are health insurance companies threatening a hike in fees?

Though the healthcare system in Germany is relatively complicated, the reason for a potential rise in care contributions is a simple one: there just isn’t enough money to fund the sector.

According to the Rheinische Post, health insurance funds are forecasting a huge black hole in their finances at the start of next year and expect to bring in just a third of what they need in order to meet demand.  

“The long-term care insurance funds assume that the financial resources in the first quarter of 2025 will amount to less than one month’s expenditure,” the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds in North Rhine-Westphalia told the regional newspaper. 

“In this case, the federal government may raise the contribution rate by statutory order.”

READ ALSO: What foreigners need to know about old-age care in Germany

Fears about the financial future of care were shared by Verena Bentele, the president of the VdK social association. Speaking on RBB, Bentele argued in favour of propping up the struggling care sector using tax revenues. 

“It one of society’s important tasks to subsidise care from tax revenue if the system would otherwise collapse,” she said. 

How much could insurance contributions rise by?

This isn’t entirely clear so far, though experts in the sector have suggested than the rise would be relatively incremental.

According to Andreas Storm, the CEO of the DAK insurance fund, 0.2 percent is a plausible number.

Currently, people with children pay 3.4 percent of their income into the long-term care funds, while childless people pay four percent. For those in employment, however, the contributions are split between the worker and the employer, meaning most people pay either 1.7 percent or two percent each month.

Self-employed people, meanwhile, are usually required to cover the full cost of social contributions themselves, meaning this group could be hit hardest by any potential hike in fees. 

What other issues are affecting long-term care in Germany?

Alongside the difficult financial situation, the care sector – like many other professions in Germany – is also struggling to plug a shortage of skilled staff, according to the German Council of Nurses. 

According to the council’s president, Christine Volger, there is already a shortage of around 115,000 full-time professionals in the care sector, which could rise to 500,000 by 2034.

One major issue is Germany’s aging population, with longer life expectancies increasing the demand for long-term care at the same time as qualified employees enter retirement. To make matters worse, many of the nurses in the sector also opt for part-time work. 

Nursing home in Baden-Württemberg

Elderly patients play a fitness-focussed ball game at a nursing home in Burladingen, Baden-Württemberg. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Bernd Weißbrod

“The gap between supply and demand is worsening,” Volger told Bild. 

On Monday, Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) said Germany had experienced an “explosive” rise in the number of people needing care, with 360,000 new patients requiring support in 2023. 

READ ALSO: Germany sees ‘explosive’ hike in people needing old-age care

The Medical Service of the Health Insurance Funds (MDK) also expects a big hike in care cases due to the prevalence of dementia.

If there is no breakthrough in therapy and prevention, the number will continue to rise sharply, Carola Engler, deputy chairwoman of the MDK, told the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper.

There is already evidence of this happening: in 2023, health insurance funds processed around 160,000 more applications for dementia care than in 2022. 

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