Incapacity for work reduced earning capacity pension: who gets when, how much?

Anyone who is no longer able to work can apply for a pension due to reduced earning capacity. With the 2019 pension package, lawmakers created benefit improvements for disability retirees. There will also be changes in 2021 as a result. Everything you should know about the reduced earning capacity pension.

By Jana Tashina Worrle

An accident at work can have consequences. If you can no longer work full time, you 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 for reduced earning capacity. This can be paid as a full or partial reduced earning capacity pension. If work to the extent of at least three and less than six hours per day are still possible, insured persons are partially incapacitated for work. The full Reduction in earning capacity Is present if, according to medical examination, the daily working capacity is less than three hours.

For a pension start date of up to 31. December 2019, the German pension insurance has a higher so-called Zurchchnungszeit added to the years of contributions 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 qualifying period increases gradually and has become more stringent for all new pensioners as of December 1, 2018. January 2021 changed at the turn of the year.

Reduced earning capacity pension: What changed in 2021?

To the so-called Zurechnungszeit set resolutions of the pension pact of the Grand Coalition, which already to 1. January 2019 came into force. The German government has created new benefit improvements and has extended the so-called Allowance period at 1. January 2021 further extended.

Specifically, this means: Already reduced earning capacity pensions with a pension start date from 1. January 2019 receive a Extended additional qualifying period. The additional calculation period was increased from 62 years and three months (for a pension start date up to 31. December 2018) to the age of 65 in one step. The retirement age has been raised to eight years and eight months. In the case of an pension start date from 1. January 2021 the additional pension period was extended by another month – to 65 years of age and ten months. "It will gradually increase until 31. December 2030 so that it is based on the completed 67. The retirement age is extended", Gundula Sennewald from the Deutsche Rentenversicherung Bund in Berlin explains. With a pension starting from 1. January 2031 it ends then with the 67. At the age of 65, but at the latest on reaching the individual standard retirement age.

The longer the additional qualifying period, the higher the pension for reduced earning capacity will be despite the deductions. The Deductions were already capped at 10.8 percentage points before the 2019 pension reform came into force.

Pension for reduced earning capacity: This is how the credited periods change

With the 2014 pension reform, important new regulations were adopted with regard to the additional calculation period for pensioners with reduced earning capacity. As a result, according to the German Pension Insurance Association, compared to 2013, the average Payment amounts for reduced earning capacity pensions of 613 euro increased by around 40 euros. To 1. As of January 1, 2018, the additional qualifying period for new pensioners was gradually extended by a further three years. According to the pension insurance fund, this extension of the qualifying period in one step has increased reduced earning capacity pensions with a pension start date from 2019 by around 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 been working with their previous average income until 67. would have continued to work.

Extension of the reckoning period

Source: German Pension Insurance Association

Whoever receives a Reduced earning capacity pension If you want to apply for an old-age pension, you will have to meet a number of requirements Requirements fulfill. The following questions and answers show what these are and what is involved in the Application to be considered at the present time.

Which requirements must be met for a reduced earning capacity pension??

As a rule, sick persons receive a reduced earning capacity pension only if for them 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 lie. 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 are also 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 before that.

What is the amount of the reduced earning capacity pension??

The amount of the pension Calculated individually on the basis of the periods of pension entitlement completed before the reduction in earning capacity occurred. If the reduced earning capacity pension has started since 1.January 2019 will be granted the so-called Zurechnungszeit until the regular retirement age of the current calendar year. In 2021, the 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 the 1.As of January 2021, it has risen to 65 years and ten months. The additional period therefore Additional periods taken into account, for which no contributions have been paid. The additional period is calculated using the average value of the insurance periods completed up to the start of the reduction in earning capacity, thus increasing 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 income losses were already recorded during this period that have a negative effect on the calculation – for example, because working hours were reduced due to the illness.

May one earn something in addition despite reduction in earning capacity pension?

Since 1. July 2017 apply through the entry into force of the Flexirentengesetz new supplementary income limits. These are calculated individually for both full and partial disability pensions. The forms required up to the age of 30. June 2017 pro-rata pension regulation no longer exists. This also means that it is no longer possible to be downgraded to the next-lowest pro rata pension if the supplementary earnings limit is exceeded slightly.

According to the German Pension Insurance Association, supplementary income is gross income from dependent employment, taxable income (income from business, from self-employment and from agriculture and forestry), comparable income (for example, parliamentary allowances) and certain social benefits. In addition, supplementary earnings will no longer be calculated on a monthly basis, but rather on a monthly basis calculated on a calendar year basis. The supplementary earnings regulations apply equally in the old and new federal states.

Pension due to full reduction in earning capacity

Who full disability pension is subject to a fixed supplementary income limit. It amounts to 6.300 euros per calendar year. This is in accordance with the previous regulations, according to which a monthly additional income of 450 euros was always possible. In addition, this amount may be exceeded twice a year, i.e. 14 times 450 euros.

"Who annual additional earnings limit of 6.300 euros However, if the amount exceeds this limit, the amount above this limit is divided by twelve. 40 percent of this income is credited to the pension", Sennewald explains.

In addition to these regulations, there is an upper limit on additional earnings, the so-called Supplementary earnings cap. For this, the reduced pension and the additional earnings are added together. If that amount is more than your previous income (highest income in the last 15 years), 100 percent of the amount above that is applied to your remaining pension.

Pension due to partial reduction in earning capacity

Also at Partial reduction in earning capacity An annual supplementary income limit applies; this is calculated individually by the pension fund. According to the pension insurance, it is based on the highest annual income subject to contributions in the last 15 years. At least it is 15 in the year 2021.989.40 euros a year.

The additional earnings are compared with this limit. If the amount is higher than this, it is divided by twelve. From this 40 percent is deducted from the pension. Here, too, the supplementary earnings cap is the upper limit.

How to apply for disability pension?

An application is also required for a pension due to reduced earning capacity. The necessary Application forms can be found on the German Pension Insurance website. 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 fund can also ask employees to pay a Rehab application to face. They have to comply with this request. If, however, there is no prospect of success for a rehabilitation measure or the insured person is not capable of rehabilitation or is still incapacitated for work after the rehabilitation has been carried out, the rehabilitation application can be reinterpreted as a pension application.

What if the application is rejected?

In each Rejection letter there is a justification, either there are medical reasons or the insurance law requirements are not met. Within one month the claimant can then file a Appeal file an appeal. However, the latter must give precise reasons why, for example, there is a claim to the pension. The application for a reduced earning capacity pension is then re-examined and a new decision is issued, the so-called appeal decision. If the person concerned then receives another rejection, the only remaining step is to file an Action before the social court. jtw

Entitlement to reduced earning capacity pension may lapse if convicted

Anyone who is no longer able to work, in whole or in part, after an accident is entitled to a reduced earning capacity pension. But this is not always the case. For example, not if one has committed a criminal offense.

Many drivers are not aware of the consequences for social security after a traffic accident in which one has committed a crime. If a driver is convicted Pension entitlement for reduced earning capacity, for example, no longer applies, when 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 application

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 promille. Due to the injuries he sustained, he has been fully incapacitated 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 was behaved in a grossly self-harming manner . Who deliberately violates laws that are intended to protect against harm, the you are 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. dpa/tmn

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