Every week, t-online answers questions about pensions with selected experts. Today: Does the adjustment due to death also apply to the company pension?
If a couple gets divorced, what is known as a pension equalization occurs. Half of each pension entitlement that you and your partner have acquired during the marriage or civil partnership will be credited to you. The bottom line is that someone who has collected more statutory pension points, for example, would have to give up part of it, while the other would gain pension points. You can read more about the equalization of pension rights here.
However, if one of the divorced partners dies, you may be able to get back the statutory pension entitlements that were assigned to him. That’s how it went in the case of a t-online reader. What he was not reimbursed, however, are the entitlements from his company and private old-age pension, which also flowed into the pension equalization. He wonders, “Is there a way to reclaim those contributions as well?”
Adjustment due to death: for which pensions is this possible?
The short answer is: unfortunately no. Because: “The law only provides for the adjustment of the pension equalization after the death of the ex-spouse for the so-called standard security systems,” says Katja Braubach from the German pension insurance association t-online.
“This includes statutory pension insurance, civil servants’ pensions, professional pensions (e.g. doctors’ pensions), old-age security for farmers and pensions for MPs and members of the government.” Private and company pension entitlements are not included.
In the pension question of the week we answer questions that you, our readers, send us. If you have any further questions about old-age provision and statutory pensions, please send us an e-mail with the subject “Pension question” to [email protected].
In order to be able to apply for an adjustment due to death at all, the deceased ex-partner must not have drawn a pension for more than 36 months at the time of their death. You submit the application informally to your pension provider. From the following month you will then receive the full pension again – at least for the standard security systems.
