There is hardly any other project that the ruling coalition fought as bitterly as over the basic pension.
The notices will be sent out soon.
But some have to be patient longer than others.
Berlin - The first of around 1.3 million pensioners will soon receive the basic pension paid into their account.
"The fact that the basic pension can now be paid is thanks to the employees of the Deutsche Rentenversicherung", said Anja Piel, board member of the German trade union federation of the German press agency in Berlin.
Today the pension insurance in Berlin wants to inform about the processes that are necessary to pay out the basic pension.
The president of the pension insurance, Gundula Roßbach, had already announced in December that the first notifications will be sent in July.
Payouts have been in preparation for months
The basic pension for pensioners with low salaries was actually introduced on January 1st. It was already clear then that the 900,000 women and 400,000 men who received the premium would initially see nothing of the money. Because the programs that are necessary to determine the individual basic pension payments have not yet been launched.
Piel said the employees of the Deutsche Rentenversicherung had done a great deal in the past few months in preparing the payouts.
“We would like to express our thanks to our colleagues for this,” said Piel, who, together with an employer representative, is also the alternate chairwoman of the Federal Board of Directors of the German Pension Insurance.
In order to prepare the basic pension supplement, almost 1000 employees were required for the pension insurance.
Piel said: “With the first decisions on the basic pension, a central promise of the welfare state is finally being kept: Anyone who not only earned their living from their wages, but has also paid contributions for decades, deserves a pension that is sufficient for a life in dignity saves him going to the social welfare office. "
Criticism of Union
At the same time, the trade unionist criticized the CDU and CSU, who had introduced the basic pension together with the SPD. "This principle would be even more effective if the Union hadn't stubbornly enforced a costly and completely nonsensical income deduction," said Piel. "Fixing that is a task for the upcoming term."
The Union and the SPD had argued almost to the break of the coalition over the basic pension, which had been a promise of the SPD.
With the agreement in autumn 2019, the coalition stipulated that the surcharge would be given to those who had at least 33 years of contributions from employment, child-rearing or care and had more than just supplementary income, for example through mini-jobs.
The full surcharge is only paid to those whose monthly income as a pensioner is a maximum of 1250 euros for a single person or 1950 euros for a spouse or partner.
Income over this is credited to 60 percent.
For the income test, a new data highway had to be set up between the tax authorities and the pension insurance.
The spouse's income is also checked.
The government calculated on average a surcharge of 75 euros per month. The payment should be made retrospectively at the beginning of the year. The first notifications should be given to those who are about to retire. For people who are already retired, the pension insurance wants to start with the oldest cohorts. dpa