Incapacity for work Reduced earning capacity pension: Who gets how much, when?Anyone who is no longer able to work can apply for a pension due to reduced earning capacity. With the 2019 pension package, the legislature has created benefit improvements for pensioners with reduced earning capacity. Also 2021 there are thereby changes. Everything you should know about the reduced earning capacity pension.
By Jana Tashina Worrle
An accident at work can have consequences. Those who can then no longer work full time can apply for a reduced earning capacity pension. – © anetlanda – stock.adobe.com
People who are seriously ill cannot always work until the statutory retirement age. Affected employees can apply for a pension due to reduced earning capacity. This can be paid out as a full or as a partial reduction in earning capacity pension. If work in the amount of at least three and less than six hours per day are still possible, insured persons are partially incapacitated for work. The full Acquisition pension is granted if, according to a medical examination, the daily working capacity is less than three hours.
In the event of a pension commencing by 31. December 2019, the German Pension Insurance has introduced a higher so-called Allowance time added to the years of contribution to the statutory pension fund, so that even young people with few years of work can benefit from a reduced earning capacity pension if the worst comes to the worst. This additional period increases gradually. Has changed for all new pensioners from 1. January 2021 changed at the turn of the year. January 2021 changed at the turn of the year.
Reduced earning capacity pension: What has changed in 2021?
Resolutions of the Grand Coalition's pension pact, which already took effect on January 1, 2019, will affect the so-called "Zurechnungszeit". January 2019 came into force. The federal government has created new benefit improvements and increased the so-called additional qualifying period as of 1. January 2021 further extended.
Specifically, this means: Already reduced earning capacity pensions with a pension start date from the 1. January 2019 receive a extended reckoning period. The additional qualifying period was extended from 62 years. Three months (for a pension start date up to 31. December 2018) in a single step to the completed 65. The pensioner must be at least three years old. Eight months increased. In the case of Pension commencement date from 1. January 2021 the additional earnings period was extended by a further month – to 65 years of age and ten months. "It will increase gradually until 31. December 2030 so that they will be credited towards the age of 67. The new legislation will extend the period until the age of 60.", explains Gundula Sennewald from the German Pension Insurance Association in Berlin. When the pension starts at 1. January 2031, it then ends at the age of 67. At the latest, however, when the individual reaches the standard retirement age.
The longer the additional earnings period, the higher the pension for reduced earning capacity will be, despite its deductions. The Reductions were already capped at 10.8 percentage points before the pension reform came into force in 2019.
Reduced earning capacity pension: This is how the attribution periods change
With the 2014 pension reform, important new regulations were adopted with regard to the additional period for pensioners with reduced earning capacity. According to the German Pension Insurance Association (Deutsche Rentenversicherung Bund), this has led to an increase in the average Payment amounts of the reduced earning capacity pensions of 613 euros increased by around 40 euros. To the 1. January 2018, the additional qualifying period for new pensioners was gradually extended by a further three years. According to the pension insurance company, this extension of the additional qualifying period in one step has increased the reduced earning capacity pensions with a pension start date from 2019 by approximately 70 euros per month. From a pension start date in 2030, people with reduced earning capacity should then be placed in the same position as if they had lived on their previous average income until the age of 67. would have continued to work.
Extension of the additional qualifying period
Source: German Pension Insurance Association
Whoever receives a Reduced earning capacity pension wants to apply for a pension, some Requirements meet. The following questions and answers show what these are and what is involved in the Application to be observed at the present time.
What requirements must be met for the reduced earning capacity pension?
A pension for reduced earning capacity is generally only paid to those who are ill if they earn Paid into the statutory pension insurance for at least five years (waiting period) was. In addition in the last five years Before the onset of reduced earning capacity at least three years of compulsory contributions are. Those who do not pay contributions to the statutory pension insurance for a longer period, for example, due to self-employment or family leave, may lose their entitlement.
However, there is also an Exceptions from the so-called waiting period. For example, the qualifying period is deemed to have been fulfilled if you became fully incapacitated for work before the end of six years after completing an apprenticeship and have paid at least one year of compulsory contributions for an insured occupation or activity in the last two years beforehand.
How much is the reduced earning capacity pension?
The amount of the pension is calculated individually from the periods under pension law completed up to the onset of the reduction in earning capacity. If the reduced earning capacity pension has started since 1.January 2019 will be granted the so-called Zurechnungszeit up to the regular retirement age of the current calendar year. In 2021, the additional qualifying period will be increased by two months to age 65 years and 10 months.
Until July 2014, the additional qualifying period only applied until the age of 60. Since then, the legislator has increased it several times. To 1.January 2021 it is to 65 years. Ten months increased. January 2021 is it on 65 years. Ten months increased. The additional earnings period will therefore additional periods taken into account, for which no contributions have been paid. The credited period is valued at the average value of the insurance periods completed up to the start of the reduction in earning capacity and thus increases the pension. In the Average earnings of the employee the last four years before the start of the reduced earning capacity pension are no longer included if there was already a loss of income during this time that has a negative effect on the calculation – for example, because the working hours were reduced due to the illness.
Is it possible to earn additional income despite a reduced earning capacity pension??
Since the 1. July 2017 apply due to the entry into force of the Flexirentengesetz New supplementary income limits. These will be calculated individually for both full and partial reduction in earning capacity pensions. The up to 30. June 2017 pro rata pension regulation no longer exists. For example, it is no longer possible to be downgraded to the next-lowest proportional pension if the supplementary earnings limit is exceeded by a small margin.
According to the German Pension Insurance Association, additional earnings include gross earnings from employment, taxable earnings (income from business, self-employment, and agriculture and forestry), comparable income (e.g., remuneration of members of parliament), and certain social benefits. In addition, the additional earnings are no longer calculated on a monthly basis, but rather at calculated on a calendar year basis. The supplementary income rules apply equally in the old and the new federal states.
Pension due to full reduction in earning capacity
Who receives a full reduction in earning capacity pension receives, for which a fixed additional earnings limit applies. It amounts to 6.300 euros per calendar year. This corresponds to the previously applicable regulations, according to which a monthly additional income of 450 euros was always possible. In addition, it is allowed to exceed this amount twice a year, so 14× 450 euros.
"Whoever exceeds the annual supplementary earnings limit of 6.300 euros However, if the additional earnings limit is exceeded, the amount in excess of this limit is divided by twelve. Of this amount, 40 percent is credited to the pension", Explains Sennewald.
In addition to these regulations, there is an upper limit on additional earnings, the so-called supplementary earnings cap. In return, the reduced pension. The additional earnings added together. If this amount is higher than the previous income (highest income in the last 15 years), 100 percent of the amount above this amount will be credited to the remaining pension.
Pension due to partial reduction in earning capacity
Also for partial incapacitation an annual supplementary earnings limit applies, this is calculated by the pension fund in principle individually. According to the pension insurance, it is based on the highest annual income subject to contributions in the last 15 years. In 2021, this will be at least 15 years.989,40 Euro per year.
With this limit the additional income is compared. If it is above that, the amount above that is divided by twelve. From this 40 percent is credited to the pension. Here, too, the supplementary earnings cap is the upper limit.
How to apply for reduced earning capacity pension?
An application is also required for a pension due to reduced earning capacity. The necessary Application forms can be found on the website of the German Pension Insurance Company. They are also available in the nationwide information and advice centers. Here you can also get detailed advice on the subject on site. The health insurance company can also ask employees to take a Rehab application to be put. They must comply with this requirement. If however for a Reha measure no success prognosis exists or the insured person is not rehafahig or after the accomplished Reha further incapacity for work is present, the Reha request can be reinterpreted into a pension request.
What if the application is rejected?
In each Rejection letter there is a justification, either there are medical reasons or the insurance-legal conditions are not fulfilled. Within one month the applicant can then make a Contradiction insert. However, this must justify exactly, why, for example, a claim to the pension exists. The application for a reduced earning capacity pension is then reviewed again and a new decision is ied, the so-called appeal decision. If the affected person then gets a refusal again, the only remaining step is the Lawsuit before the social court. jtw
Entitlement to a reduced earning capacity pension may be forfeited in the event of conviction
Anyone who is no longer able to work in whole or in part after an accident is entitled to the reduced earning capacity pension. But this is not always the case. For example, not if you have committed a criminal offence.
Many drivers are not aware of the consequences for social insurance after a traffic accident in which one has committed a crime. If a driver is convicted, the pension entitlement for reduced earning capacity, for example, no longer exists, if he operated the vehicle without a driver's license. This is the result of a decision of the Hessian Regional Social Court (Az.: L 5 R 129/14).
Insurance company may reject claim
The case in question involved a 29-year-old man who caused an accident without a driver's license and with a blood alcohol level of 1.39 per mille. Due to the injuries he sustained, he has been fully disabled since then. Since he was sentenced by the district court for drunk driving and driving without a license to five months imprisonment on probation, the pension insurance rejected his application for reduced earning capacity pension .
The reason given for the decision was that he had have behaved in a grossly self-harming manner . Those who deliberately violate laws designed to protect against harm have no longer entitled to insurance benefits.
This argumentation was followed by the social courts in two instances. The pension can also be denied, if the reduction in earning capacity occurred as a result of a criminal act, according to the opinion of the Regional Social Court of Hessen./tmn
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