Annual balance: risk of accidents at work increased in 2021, but is below 2019 level
The risk of accidents in the private and public sectors has increased in 2021 compared to the previous year. This is according to the business and accounting results published by the German Social Accident Insurance (DGUV). The accident risk rose from 21.54 accidents at work per 1,000 full-time employees in 2020 to 22.95 accidents in 2021. However, this was still below the 2019 figure, when the accident risk was 23.93 accidents at work per 1,000 full-time employees. These figures relate solely to accidents in an occupational context. Accidents involving other groups of insured persons, such as people in voluntary work or in rehabilitation, are not included.
The number of recognized occupational illnesses has risen sharply due to the pandemic. In contrast, the number of accidents in pupil accident insurance fell sharply again due to distance and alternating lessons.
“The results for 2021 reflect the continued major impact of the pandemic on insurance business,” commented DGUV Director General Dr. Stefan Hussy on the results. “This differs significantly from 2019 and the years before.” The figures underline the challenges that statutory accident insurance has had to overcome over the past two years, but also the resilience of this branch of social insurance. “It will be interesting to see how things develop – for example, whether developments such as the increasing number of employees working from home will have a long-term impact on the risk of accidents.” However, it is still too early to say.
Still significantly fewer accidents at work than before the pandemic
The number of reportable accidents at work amounted to 759,993 last year. This was 45,514 more than in the previous year, but still significantly fewer than in 2019 (811,722). There were also 46,224 accidents in a non-occupational context. This includes, for example, accidents during voluntary work such as in the volunteer fire department or during home care.
The number of commuting accidents increased by almost 12% to 170,853 in 2021 compared to the previous year. However, it also remained significantly below the 2019 level (186,672).
16,211 insured persons received an accident pension for the first time in 2021 due to a work or commuting accident, a decrease of 8.1 percent. Around three quarters of these pensions were due to an accident at work.
The number of fatal accidents at work rose by 56 to 370, in addition to 140 accidents outside of work. The number of fatal commuting accidents fell by 11 to 227.
Corona increases the number of occupational illnesses
The pandemic has also led to a sharp increase in the number of reports of occupational diseases and recognitions in 2021. While there were 80,132 suspected cases of occupational disease in 2019, there were 106,491 in the first year of the pandemic in 2020 and 227,730 in 2021. The number of recognized cases of BK rose accordingly to 123,626. However, the coronavirus pandemic was not solely responsible for this. Due to a change in the law, the obligation to refrain from reporting a number of BKs was abolished at the turn of the year 2020/2021. As a result, the distinction between recognized BKs and BKs where the occupation was the cause but the insured person would have had to give up their job in order to be recognized was abolished.
The number of BK pensions increased by 5.44 percent to 5,331. A total of 2,548 insured persons died as a result of a BK. The main cause of this was asbestos-related cancer.
Further information can be found on the DGUV website.