insurance
Next tier of basic pension – All pensions before review
The basic pension started a year ago. But all pensions have by no means been checked. Photo: Felix Kästle / dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
The basic pension started a year ago. Due to the enormous effort involved in determining entitlement, not all pensions have been checked by a long way – but now the next stage is coming.
Around a year after the start of the basic pension, the pension insurance will now examine a possible claim for the majority of pensioners in Germany.
In the new year, the review of the basic pension surcharge will gradually be initiated for all cohorts, said the President of the German Pension Insurance Association, Gundula Roßbach, the German Press Agency in Berlin.
Since the middle of last year, the pension insurance has been checking all new retirees whether they are entitled to the basic pension supplement, according to Roßbach. Actually, the claim has been in place since the beginning of last year. However, the first beneficiaries only received the premium retrospectively more than six months after the official start. Because of the due income checks, a data highway had to be built between the pension insurance and the tax authorities.
All followed with basic security and the oldest pensions, reported Roßbach. “And now the other existing pensioners follow – all those who have retired since 1992,” said Roßbach. “We will start with the oldest cohorts and in the new year will gradually initiate the examination of the basic pension supplement for all cohorts.” A total of around 26 million pensions are checked to see whether the supplement is paid.
The interaction with the tax offices in the income test worked “smoothly”, assured Roßbach. For the full surcharge, the monthly income as a pensioner may be a maximum of 1250 euros (single person) or 1950 euros (married couple or life partner). The taxable income, the tax-free part of the pension and investment income are checked. The pension fund does not have this data. The pension insurance tells the tax offices who has worked long enough for a basic pension – they check the respective income.
“The point mentioned in the coalition agreement, according to which in particular the examination effort for investment income should be considered again, only affects the next stage,” explained Roßbach. The SPD, the Greens and the FDP had announced: “In the course of the election period we will evaluate the effect of the basic pension and develop suggestions for improvement, in particular also for the examination of investment income.”
Roßbach explained: “The most time-consuming task of checking income is checking those investment income that is not reflected in the income tax return.” The fully automated income check only takes into account income that is reported by the tax authorities as part of taxable income. A review of the investment income not included in taxable income is only planned from 2023. “In this respect, we are open to a possible change in this point,” said Rossbach.