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pensioners in Germany
Photo: Sebastian Kahnert / dpa
According to the federal government, around 180,000 to 190,000 needy pensioners can expect help of at least 2,500 euros from a new hardship fund.
These include East Germans with claims from GDR times as well as Jewish quota refugees and late resettlers on the poverty line.
The federal cabinet launched the foundation intended for the fund on Friday.
Last week, the Budget Committee in the Bundestag made 500 million euros available for this purpose.
The federal states should have the opportunity to participate financially in the fund until March 31, 2023.
If this happens, applicants in the participating countries can hope for 5,000 instead of 2,500 euros.
The background is above all a decades-long dispute over certain pension entitlements from the GDR era, which were not transferred to the federal German system in 1991.
Affected are, for example, supplementary pensions for former employees of the Reichsbahn or Post as well as entitlements of women who were divorced in GDR times.
"To mitigate their perceived hardships and for self-determined use"
The Federal Ministry of Social Affairs explained the recipient group of payments from the fund: »The foundation is aimed at people who have completed a significant part of their working history in the former GDR or in the foreign region of origin and whose pensions from the statutory pension insurance system are close to the basic security in old age and in the event of a reduced earning capacity.« They could receive the one-time payment »to alleviate their perceived hardship and for self-determined use«.
The establishment of the foundation should be completed in early 2023.
Then the application process can begin, the ministry said.
The applications should be submitted to the German pension insurance Knappschaft-Bahn-See.
When the money will be paid out must "currently still be awaited".
dop/dpa