Pension: Receive money without ever having paid in - that's possible

Created: 03/20/2022, 09:05

By: Lisa Mayerhofer

Not only employees who have paid into the pension insurance for more than five years are entitled to the statutory pension.

© Gustafsson/Imago

Not only employees who have paid into the pension insurance for more than five years are entitled to the statutory pension.

Contribution years can also be credited in other ways.

Berlin - Anyone who has paid into the statutory pension insurance for at least five years is later entitled to an old-age pension.

This is not a problem for people who have worked as employees for many years.

But what about people with a different work history?

Statutory pension: pension entitlement and contribution years

Employees are obligated to take out insurance for their pension*.

The self-employed, entrepreneurs or artists do not have these, but can voluntarily pay into the pension fund and thus get the five years of contributions.

However, it is also possible under certain circumstances to receive a pension entitlement without having paid any money, writes the German pension insurance.

Namely, through the regulation of the contribution years: You get two and a half years of contribution years for births before 1992 for each child, and for births from 1992 even three contribution years.

If you have several children, you have at least secured a pension entitlement in this way.

supplement pension?

That goes until the end of March 

By the way, if you want to top up your pension now, you should do so in March: Because voluntary contributions to the statutory pension insurance for the year 2021 can be paid up to the 31st.

This is pointed out by the German Pension Insurance Association in Berlin.

Through these contributions, minimum insurance periods for a pension entitlement can be met and existing pension entitlements can be maintained.

In addition, the contributions increase the future pension.

According to the Deutsche Rentenversicherung Bund, people who want to secure their entitlement to a pension because of reduced earning capacity through voluntary contributions or who want to close gaps in the insurance process should definitely meet the deadline.

In the case of a subsequent payment for the year 2021, the monthly contribution amount can be chosen between the minimum contribution of 83.70 euros and the maximum contribution of 1320.60 euros.

There is no distinction between the old and new federal states.

If voluntary contributions are transferred to the Deutsche Rentenversicherung, the insurance number and the period for which the contributions are to apply must be given.

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All people living in Germany who are not employed and are at least 16 years old can make these voluntary contributions.

This also applies to Germans who live abroad.

Anyone who draws an early full retirement pension can also make voluntary contributions until they reach the regular retirement age and thus further increase their pension.