Status: 16.01.2024, 13:13 PM
By: Amy Walker
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Those who have not yet submitted the application now have until the end of January 2024. For pensioners, up to 5000 euros are available as a subsidy.
Berlin – The original deadline was September 30, then it was extended until the end of January. The second deadline is now slowly coming to an end, and there is potentially a lot of money in it for many pensioners. It is about the hardship fund, which serves to alleviate low pensions of former GDR citizens, ethnic German repatriates and Jewish quota refugees. Here are the most important answers to your questions:
Pension subsidy: Who is entitled to receive money from the hardship fund?
The fund, which the government launched last year, aims to alleviate hardship cases among ethnic German repatriates, Eastern pensioners and Jewish migrants. It is estimated that about 200,000 potential applicants are eligible for the hardship fund.
The one-off payment is intended for pensioners who received less than 1 euros net in statutory pensions (after deduction of health and long-term care insurance contributions) on 2021 January 830 AND:
- either ethnic German repatriates (§ 4 of the Federal Expellees Act)
- or Jewish quota refugees or their relatives from the former Soviet Union
- or pensioners from the East-West pension transition.
These include, among others, ballet dancers who were promised a so-called "ballet pension" by the GDR, as well as people who worked for the Deutsche Reichsbahn, the Deutsche Post or in the health and social services in the former GDR.
What do beneficiaries have to do to apply for the pension subsidy?
The benefit from the hardship fund will only be granted upon application, which can be submitted by 31 January 2024. The application forms are available on the information portal of the Hardship Fund Foundation. You can also request the corresponding application form by post from the Foundation's office (postal address: Office of the Hardship Fund Foundation, 44781 Bochum). The payment of the benefit began at the end of June 2023, depending on the time of application.
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How much money can pensioners receive? Is the payment tax-free?
Beneficiaries receive a lump sum one-off payment of 2500 euros. For persons who, at the time of the establishment of the foundation on 7 March 2023, were resident in a federal state that has joined the foundation, a benefit of 5000 euros may be possible. These include Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Bremen, Hamburg and Thuringia. The state of Berlin has announced its accession.
For certain pensioners, there can be up to 5000 euros as a subsidy. © Christin Klose/dpa-tmn
Beneficiaries need not worry: the one-off payment is neither taken into account as income for income-related social benefits, nor is it counted as an asset, reports gegen-hartz.de. Therefore, the payment is tax-free and cannot be garnished.