According to the will of the minister, numerous recipients of a disability pension should be supported by the federal government.
(Photo: IMAGO/photothek)
Berlin The federal government wants to improve the financial situation of around three million people who had to unintentionally retire prematurely. Recipients of a disability pension, which was paid out for the first time between 2001 and 2018, are to receive a flat-rate surcharge on their retirement benefits of up to 7.5 percent from mid-2024.
This is what the draft bill by Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD) for a “law on pension adjustment 2022 and improvement of benefits for the disability pension portfolio”, which is available to the Handelsblatt. The editorial network Germany (RND) reported first.
A disability pension is given to anyone who has to prematurely retire in whole or in part due to illness or an accident. Last year, the Deutsche Rentenversicherung Bund (DRV) paid around 1.8 million disability pensions. The number of beneficiaries of the reform is higher because many disability pensioners have now reached the standard retirement age and are drawing their normal old-age pension.
The Ministry of Labor puts the additional expenditure for pension insurance, including the subsidy for pensioners’ health insurance, at 1.3 billion euros in 2024 and 2.6 billion euros in 2025. “In the following years, the additional expenditure will slowly decrease,” says the Design. The surcharge is to be based on the earnings points collected up to the point of departure, i.e. essentially on previous earnings and the hours worked.
Top jobs of the day
Find the best jobs now and
be notified by email.
As early as 2014 and 2019, the federal government ensured that people who had to give up their gainful employment prematurely were better off. Through a gradual increase in the so-called supplementary periods, pensioners for reduced earning capacity were classified as if they had worked longer. This increased their pensions.
Traffic light sets catch-up factor again
However, only insured persons who now received a disability pension benefited from the reforms, but not the existing pensioners. The SPD, Greens and FDP had therefore agreed in the coalition agreement to provide for improvements for them as well. The grand coalition had rejected this for cost reasons.
>> Read here: The best disability insurance
With the planned law, the federal government is also reinstating the so-called catch-up factor, which the grand coalition had originally suspended until 2025. Since pension cuts are excluded under the law, the catch-up factor ensures that pension cuts that are actually due when wages fall are offset against later pension increases.
The factor will have a slightly dampening effect on the pension adjustment due in the middle of the year. Despite this, old-age pensions will increase by 5.35 percent in western Germany and by 6.12 percent in eastern Germany.
More: Pensions will rise by up to 6.12 percent this summer