Extra pension from the state
This is how self -employed people secure their own mother’s pension
The pension fund is already rewarding parents with the mother’s pension: there is 122 euros in monthly pension per child – also for the self -employed. But they have to be active.
Those who are self -employed usually ensure age on their own. With life insurance, professional pension funds or both. What only a few know: You can also obtain a legal pension as I am employed.
Even more: Even those who are self -employed automatically acquire pension entitlements to the German pension insurance (DRV) as soon as they raise children, the so -called child rearing times -. Many self -employed people already have pension entitlements without knowing it. You have to.
The pension is safe from two children
In order to actually pay a pension, you have to get together five pension insurance years. There is talk of five years of “waiting time” in the jargon of the German pension insurance.
One of the two parents can get three pension years per child. The mother’s child -rearing periods are usually assigned. In children who were born before 1992, there are two and a half pension years. (This. Then there should be three years per child for all birth year.
With two children, one parent usually has six pension years full – and thus a payable claim to a pension.
122 euro monthly pension per child
The child -rearing period is evaluated as if you have practically earned the average wage of the pension insured. For three years, a monthly pension of 122 euros comes together for the current pension value.
The parents can also divide the child -rearing times. It is crucial who has mainly brought up the child in the respective time. This can be proven subsequently, for example, using parental leave or employment contracts. In principle, the parents can also divide the mother’s pension, i.e. the retirement years for the child. However, this can only be done with a joint explanation in the first years of life – and no longer afterwards.
Just a child? Simply deposit voluntarily!
If self -employed people only have one child or two children and the child -rearing periods, only three pension years come together. However, the two missing years to pay can be easily supplemented by voluntary deposits.
Because self -employed can pay contributions voluntarily at the German pension insurance at any time. You can choose the amount freely within certain limits – and deduct taxes as “special expenses”. Overall, retirement provision in the income tax return up to an altitude of just over 29,000 euros can be asserted.
Basically, anyone who lives in Germany and is not compulsory can deposit voluntary contributions. The minimum contribution is currently (2025) to EUR 103.42 a month. The maximum amount is 1404.30 euros a month.
Once pay, always mother’s pension
A small sample calculation: 2024 the minimum contribution was just over 100 euros a month, this year it is a good 103 euros. So if you have paid a minimum pension of 2442 euros for both years, you could secure two pension years.
Together with three years of child education that would have already justified a pension entitlement.
And that is worth it: The payment of the 2442 euros is made, in itself, only a pension entitlement of EUR 11.20 a month. Due to the three additional years of child education, however, it makes almost 134 euros in a monthly pension, more than 1600 euros a year – an impressive sum. So you quickly have the deposit out.
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The monthly pension increases with wages year after year – at least according to the current legal situation. For example, it rose by 3.74 percent. The following table shows for comparison what an average employee has to deposit a year in order to maintain a fee (also called a pension point). The mother’s pension would of course also come to this.
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The self -employed can pay their voluntary contributions monthly, but also in an annual rate. So if you want to start now, you can still acquire a pension entitlement for 2025.
Check beforehand whether a mother’s pension is granted
Important to know: The child -rearing periods are only granted by the pension fund as long as the parents do not acquire child pension claims otherwise. This is the case with civil servants, for example. In contrast, this generally does not apply to professional pension funds, which is why self -employed people practically always have this claim. You also have to assert the mother’s pension.
For this, it is advisable to initiate an account statement. Or to agree first. It is possible, for example, that mini jobs or other special reasons have also arisen. And it is not necessary to pay voluntarily.
Source: Stern
