HR-Glossar
Wiedereingliederung, stufenweise (phased return to work)
How the German phased return works, why incapacity for work continues throughout, who has to agree and how it differs from the mandatory BEM.
1. What is Wiedereingliederung, stufenweise (phased return to work)?
The phased return to work – also called the Hamburg model after its origin – is the step-by-step return to the workplace after a long illness. Working time is increased over weeks or months according to a medical plan until full capacity is reached again. The legal bases are Section 74 SGB V and Section 44 SGB IX.
The decisive and most frequently misunderstood point: during the phased return, incapacity for work continues. The person is still legally ill. They perform no work in the contractual sense but test their capacity – which is why the employer owes no remuneration.
Their living costs are covered by the social benefit that is running anyway: sickness benefit from the health insurance fund or transitional allowance from the pension insurance institution. For payroll this means that in principle no pay is made during this period – a voluntary employer supplement is possible but is a decision of its own.
For a group whose payroll system derives pay from attendance, that paragraph is the one to act on before the first case arises.
2. Origin and development
The model grew out of a simple observation: after a long illness the jump from nothing to full working time is too large for many people. Someone expected to work eight hours on the first day frequently drops out again – and the second period of incapacity then lasts longer than the first.
The solution was to increase the load step by step without formally ending the incapacity for work. Cover through sickness benefit or transitional allowance therefore continues, and a setback does not lead to a fresh sick note with all its consequences for deadlines and entitlements.
Legally the phased return is therefore a hybrid, and nearly every practical question follows from that: it takes place at the workplace but is not work; it is medically prescribed but requires the employer's agreement; it serves the employment relationship but is financed by social insurance.
3. Core principles and how it works
Incapacity for work continues
The phased return does not end the incapacity. That ends only when full contractual working time has been reached again and capacity is medically confirmed.
No remuneration, but a wage replacement benefit
What is paid is sickness benefit under SGB V or transitional allowance under SGB IX – depending on which institution is responsible. No entitlement to remuneration arises.
The medical step plan as the basis
The treating doctor draws up a plan with hours per day and a duration for each step, usually starting with a few hours. It also names activities that are not yet possible.
Voluntary on all sides
The person concerned must agree, and so must the employer. There is no general entitlement against the employer – with one important exception.
An exception for severe disability
From the entitlement to employment appropriate to a disability under Section 164(4) SGB IX, an entitlement to carry out the phased return can arise for severely disabled people. A refusal requires reasons here.
It can be broken off at any time
Where the load turns out to be too high, it is stopped. That is not a failure but the purpose of a trial – the incapacity for work simply continues.
4. Who is Wiedereingliederung, stufenweise (phased return to work) relevant for?
- Employees after a long illness – particularly after mental illness, surgery and cancer treatment. - Employers with long sickness cases – for them the phased return is the orderly way back instead of a risky immediate start. - Payroll teams – they have to recognise that what is running is not pay but a wage replacement benefit. - Managers – they implement the step plan day to day and in practice decide whether it succeeds. - Occupational integration management and the works council – the threads between doctor, fund and business come together with them.
5. How it differs from related terms
- Phased return and BEM – occupational integration management under Section 167(2) SGB IX is a process of discussion and clarification which the employer is obliged to offer once absence reaches a certain length. The phased return is a measure that can follow from it but need not. The two are constantly confused. - Phased return and part-time work – part-time is a permanent contractual reduction with pay to match. The phased return is time-limited, does not change the contract and is not remunerated by the employer. - Phased return and convalescent holiday – holiday presupposes fitness for work; no holiday is taken during incapacity. - Phased return and rehabilitation – rehabilitation is a medical service; the phased return frequently follows it and takes place in the business. - Phased return and a workplace adapted to disability – the entitlement to employment appropriate to a disability is a permanent question of work design, not a time-limited trial.
6. Variants and adaptations
The differences follow from the responsible institution and the occasion:
- Sickness benefit case – the health insurance fund pays sickness benefit under Section 74 SGB V; the most frequent case. - Following rehabilitation – the pension insurance institution pays transitional allowance under Section 44 SGB IX; the phased return ideally begins immediately after rehabilitation. - After an accident at work – the statutory accident insurance is responsible and pays injury benefit. - During continued pay – a rarer case: where the phased return still falls within the six-week period, continued pay keeps running. The payroll treatment is then different. - Break-off and fresh start – a break-off ends the measure, not the incapacity; a further attempt later is possible.
7. Advantages and challenges
Advantages
- Noticeably reduces the risk of a further absence compared with an immediate start
- Employees stay covered — sickness benefit or transitional allowance keep running
- The employer as a rule bears no pay costs during the measure
- Contact with the business is not broken, which makes the return easier
- Breaking off carries no consequences — which takes the pressure off both sides
Challenges
- Regularly confused with the BEM, although only one of the two is mandatory
- Pay is wrongly processed because somebody is present in the business
- Employees experience a financial shortfall, because sickness benefit is below net pay
- The step plan does not always fit shift patterns or customer schedules
- Managers depart from the plan when things get tight — and thereby jeopardise the measure
- Without the employer's agreement it fails, except in the case of Section 164(4) SGB IX
8. Best practices for implementation
Mark it correctly in payroll
Attendance here is not work performed. The case belongs in the system as incapacity for work, not as part-time – otherwise pay is made that is not owed, and it collides with the sickness benefit payment.
Treat the step plan as binding
The agreed hours are an upper limit, not a guideline. "Just this once, a bit longer" is the most frequent reason for a break-off.
Think about activities, not only hours
Four hours at a screen is not the same as four hours of client conversations. The plan should name what is not yet possible – otherwise the person sits out the time and tests nothing.
Keep BEM and the phased return apart
The BEM under Section 167(2) SGB IX is an employer duty once absence reaches a certain length. Treating it as the same thing as the phased return means omitting it – and that tells in later unfair dismissal proceedings.
Look more closely where there is severe disability
An entitlement can follow from Section 164(4) SGB IX. A blanket refusal is risky here and belongs reasoned.
9. Tips for employers and employees
For employers
- **No pay during the measure** – sickness benefit or transitional allowance is running
- **Record it as incapacity for work in the system** – not as part-time
- **BEM is something else, and it is mandatory** – Section 167(2) SGB IX
- **Where there is severe disability an entitlement can exist** – Section 164(4) SGB IX
For employees
- **You remain unfit for work** – sickness benefit or transitional allowance keeps running
- **The step plan is an upper limit** – working more jeopardises the measure and your cover
- **Breaking off is allowed** – that is the purpose of a trial, not a failure
- **Expect a financial shortfall** – sickness benefit is below your net pay
10. Conclusion
The phased return is a trial, not work. Incapacity for work continues, no remuneration is owed, and living costs continue to run through sickness benefit or transitional allowance. Processing attendance in the business as work performed is the most frequent error on this subject.
The second frequent error is confusing it with the BEM. Occupational integration management under Section 167(2) SGB IX is a mandatory process once absence reaches a certain length; the phased return is a voluntary measure that can follow from it. Treating the two as one means omitting the BEM – with consequences that surface only in unfair dismissal proceedings.
For an international group both errors have the same root: a process built elsewhere has no slot for someone who is at their desk and legally unfit for work, and no slot for a statutory duty to hold a conversation. Both belong configured before the first long-term illness, not during it.
Success does not turn on the agreement but on daily practice: the step plan is an upper limit, and the most frequent cause of a break-off is the well-meant exception in which someone works longer after all.
A note on sources: SGB V has an official English version, cited below. SGB IX does not (checked on 2026-09-27); its German text governs.
Sources
- Section 74 SGB V – Phased return to work (official English version) (opens in a new tab)
- Section 44 SGB IX – Phased return to work (German original; no official English version) (opens in a new tab)
- Section 167 SGB IX – Prevention and occupational integration management (German original) (opens in a new tab)
- Section 164 SGB IX – Employer duties and rights of severely disabled people (German original) (opens in a new tab)
- Section 44 SGB V – Sickness benefit (official English version) (opens in a new tab)
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