As of: March 12, 2024, 4:47 p.m
By: Mark Stoffers
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A court ruled in favor of a plaintiff when it came to the surcharge for the basic pension.
According to the ruling, taking into account the spouse's income is constitutional.
Essen – Was a groundbreaking court ruling regarding pensions made this week?
On Monday, the North Rhine-Westphalia State Social Court in Essen declared the crediting of spouses' income in the basic pension as constitutional.
In the corresponding proceedings, the plaintiff disputed with the German pension insurance company over a basic pension supplement for long-term insurance.
The pension insurance had refused her this supplement to her approved old-age pension because her husband's income to be taken into account was higher than the supplement.
Ruling on the basic pension: Taking into account the husband's income is constitutional
According to the court, the plaintiff complained that the income crediting violated the Basic Law.
Married people would be disadvantaged because the law does not provide for the income of unmarried people to be taken into account.
The plaintiff had already failed before a social court in a previous instance.
Now the state social court also rejected the appeal.
The court did recognize the disadvantage of taking into account income.
However, it stated that the disadvantage was compensated for when “all regulations relating to marriage or registered civil partnerships are considered as a whole”.
The court also took into account that the aim of the basic pension, in addition to recognizing life's work, was to provide better financial support for those who have been insured for a long time.
According to the judgment, the entitlement to the basic pension remains with an income above the basic security requirement
The court found that this goal was achieved.
If the spouse's income is included, the person entitled to a basic pension would have an income above the basic security requirement.
He is in a better position than someone who has worked little or not at all and who has therefore paid little or not at all into the pension insurance.
The court continued that this also applies to someone who lives in a non-marital partnership with someone who has appropriate income.
However, spouses are “provided for more effectively than in a non-marital partnership because of the mutual obligation under maintenance law”.
Basic pension for pensioners: dissatisfaction with the supplement
The ruling comes at a time when there are renewed calls for rapid changes to the basic pension supplement.
On the occasion of International Women's Day, VdK President Verena Bentele is calling for changes to the basic pension so that more pensioners can benefit from it.
The basic pension adds value to low retirement incomes, Bentele told the newspapers of the
Funke media group
on Friday.
“But overall we are not satisfied that far fewer women and men are receiving the contract than originally planned.
Instead of three million, it was recently just over a million.
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In addition, the average payout amount is only 80 euros, said the president of the social association VdK.
Bentele called for the partner's income credit to be abolished.
She criticized that it was not only “a huge bureaucratic effort”, but also contradicted the actual goal of the basic pension.
Basic pension for pensioners: Supplement should “not be a handout”
“It shouldn’t be a handout, but rather an appreciation of an individual’s life’s work.” Bentele also called for a reform of family taxation.
Spousal splitting should be replaced by a taxation model for families, she said.
“The marriage certificate should not be the decisive factor for tax support, but rather the fact whether someone is raising children or not,” argued the VdK president.
The German Bundestag agreed on the basic pension supplement at the beginning of July 2020.
This is not a stand-alone benefit, but rather a plus to the existing pension.
It is paid out together with the statutory pension.
The height is determined individually.