The first of around 1.3 million recipients of small pensions will receive the new basic pension within the next few weeks, a monthly surcharge on their retirement benefits. The Deutsche Rentenversicherung Bund (DRV Bund) confirmed on Friday that it would send out the first notifications from July onwards. Initially, the basic pension should only be paid to new pensioners who will retire from July. The last notifications are not expected to be issued to existing pensioners until the end of 2022. However, all claims that have accrued up to that point will be paid retrospectively by January 1st of this year.
All those with at least 33 years of contributions for employment, upbringing or care should benefit from the basic pension. According to figures from the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, the surcharge will be around 75 euros per month on average. In the best case scenario, this means that just under 420 euros per month are possible.
The basic pension is a central project of the SPD, which was initiated by Federal Social Minister Hubertus Heil and is likely to play an important role in the current federal election campaign. As early as January 1, the Union and the SPD had put the basic pension into effect by law. However, implementation has been delayed until now because the government obliged the pension scheme to carry out an income test before the award was granted. The grand coalition had agreed on this after a long dispute. Now, for example, capital income above the saver’s allowance is offset against the basic pension, but not assets and real estate. In order to carry out the income check and the necessary data comparison with the tax offices, the DRV Bund hired 1000 new employees. In the starting year 2021, the basic pension will cost taxpayers an estimated 1.3 billion euros.
You get the full basic pension up to a monthly income of 1250 euros for a single person and 1950 euros for a married couple or registered partner. As soon as the tax exemption is exceeded, 60 percent of the income above that is taken into account, income over 1,600 euros is fully credited for single persons, and for couples it is 2,300 euros.
As soon as the first notifications to new pensioners have been processed, the surcharges for all existing pensioners are checked, the oldest age groups first. This will start this year, it said. According to the plans of the DRV Bund, the final notices on the basic pension will be completed by the end of 2022. In total, the data of 26 million retirees would have to be checked.
Critics complain that the basic pension in addition to retirement benefits only partially eliminates old-age poverty. In the future, too, many people are at risk of old-age poverty who also pay into the pension fund, but do not come to the contribution periods that are necessary for the granting of the basic pension. Above all, the FDP, but also parts of the Union, criticize the fact that retirees who are not in need but are wealthy because they have greater assets, but which are not taken into account in the income test within the framework of the basic pension, can also enjoy the basic pension .