Improve pension: Lawyer reveals legal tricks
Created: 07/12/2022, 07:00
By: Juliane Gutmann
There are a number of ways to make more money when you retire.
For example, compensation payments for the pension deduction.
Do you draw a pension but would like to top it up?
Some decide to continue working – and thus receive an old-age pension and additional income.
This is not counted towards the old-age pension if the statutory retirement age has been reached, according to the statutory regulation.
However, most people do not decide to continue working at the end of their working lives, but want to enjoy their newly gained free time.
Long-distance travel, an expensive hobby and new purchases: If the pension is right, anything is possible.
But many people in Germany only have a small pension that covers the essentials.
Anyone who wants to top up their pension has several options, as Peter Knöppel, lawyer and pension advisor, explains.
Top up your pension: Three legal ways
In order to be able to afford more than the bare essentials in retirement, this should be improved.
© Ute Grabowsky/Imago
Lawyer Peter Knöppel from Rentenbescheid24.de explains the following three tricks on how you can top up your pension:
In the case of dismissal by the employer, a severance payment is often made.
Here you can request that your employer pay this into the pension fund.
If you want to retire at 63, you have to reckon with deductions.
The tip from pension expert Knöppel: Request a special pension information from the pension insurance company, which will tell you how much you can compensate for the expected pension reduction with additional contributions.
Compensation payments of this kind can begin as early as the age of 50 and are tax-deductible.
Do you have a part-time job in addition to your actual job?
A mini job is subject to pension insurance and increases the pension, around four euros per year, according to Knöppel.
Have you attended school or university for more than eight years?
School training periods of up to eight years are recognized as credit periods.
Until you are 45 years old, however, you can submit an application and pay contributions to the pension fund for your university years that do not fall within the crediting period.
These have the effect of increasing pensions, according to lawyer Knöppel.
