Pension for corpses? How it comes to payments to the dead

A person dying in retirement. At home. It is usually that an emergency doctor immediately confirms the death of death. Usually that an undertaker then takes on everything else, including the official. But it doesn’t always work that way.

Deceased can be found in cellars, gardens, walled in, in self -made coffins, therefore even frozen in cooling chests. About a handful of such cases is known in Germany every year. Survivors who proceed in this way – as macabre may sound – initially “only” an administrative offense. They violate the corporate and funeral obligation, which applies in all federal states. Anyone who acts and flies up must count on a fine. But often also with criminal proceedings – because of fraud.

Because: Without a death report, German pension insurance continues to transfer money – from which relatives who have an account power of attorney can use. Because unlike the last time on social media, there is no legal obligation for relatives to report a death to the pension insurance. This leads to legal proceedings – with grotesque cases.

A 55-year-old man from Saxony, who had wrapped his late mother in foil for months in the shared apartment, was acquitted of the indictment for commercial fraud. As a reason, he stated that he could not bear the funeral costs. However, he received the mother’s pension, a total of 21,000 euros. The pension insurance failed to request the money paid within one year. The man got away with a fine of 200 euros.

In the event of an indictment, a court decided differently. A 57-year-old woman from Hessen was sentenced to a year and a half in prison for probation and 200 social hours. She had received the pension of her late mother for years, a total of around 77,000 euros. The court regarded the daughter’s behavior as a violation of the so -called guarantee obligation. It would have been through active action, here the death notice, which could prevent illegal pension payment.

Piquant case detail: The woman’s mother died in Italy in 2006, and the authorities there did not report the death to the Federal Republic at the time. It’s different today. The German pension insurance refers to automatic data comparison with various countries such as Italy, Austria, Spain and Australia. Only in countries with which such a data comparison does not (yet) have (yet) have to prove that they live there every year that they still live. For this purpose, the pension insurance requested it in writing in June/July by decision.

And in Germany? In 2020, the Federal Social Court made at least fundamentally clarified that illegally paid pensions, for example to deceased, must be repaid by whose beneficiaries. Whether such beneficiaries can also be subject to civil and/or criminal law? Depends on the case constellation without further legal sharpening.

In any case, there is no obligation to submit a declaration of life annually: “Contrary to reports on social media, pensioners in Germany do not have to provide any proof of life in Germany!”.

By the way: The frequent excuse of alleged pension frauds that you have no money for the burial of a relative is only partially drawn. The pension insurance spouse of deceased grants the so -called “dying quarter of the year”: for the first three months after the death, the pension of the dead is paid out.