The statutory pension insurance knows a lot about us, but not everything. Sometimes we have to take action ourselves to clarify claims. An appeal – especially to all mothers.
Anyone who has statutory pension insurance usually assumes that he or she no longer has to worry about anything. The responsible authorities are already regulating this with the federal pension insurance. That’s basically how it is. Periods of employment or study, wages, paid contributions and periods without insurance are automatically transmitted. Over the decades, the respective pension entitlements are calculated and managed based on the professional stages. And yet information may be missing. Perhaps further training courses were not reported, training periods were not reported in full and periods of study abroad were overlooked.
But how do we know what the pension insurance knows and whether something is missing? We can ask one without much hassle. When clarifying the accounts, the pension insurance company sends us the previous insurance history and points out any gaps. Once we have the insurance history, we can compare everything with our own documents such as contracts, pay slips, periods of unemployment and calendar information. And check whether the reported times and amounts were recorded correctly. If there is a gap and we can prove it, the insurance company will supplement our claims.
Pension: Account clarification makes sense from the age of 40
When it comes to clarifying your accounts, it doesn’t matter whether you are a civil servant, self-employed, employed or solely managing your family. Anyone who has paid for pension insurance for at least five years and is over 27 years old can claim one. It makes sense to consider them between the ages of 40 and 45 because we can retroactively close any gaps in eligibility for training up to the age of 45. But at every age thereafter, it is important to know so that we don’t miss out on pension.
However, some pension-relevant data does not appear in the automatically recorded insurance history, even though it would lead to a higher pension: parenthood.
With children we score points in pension insurance
Nobody informs the pension insurance company in a standardized way that we are becoming parents, not the residents’ registration office and not even the registry office. The pension insurance compensates to a certain extent for the time and financial effort that the children bring with them. But only if we fill out the appropriate forms ourselves.
For every child born after 1992, the pension insurance credits three earnings points to the insurance account. For children born before 1992 it is 2.5 points. Currently, three salary points correspond to a monthly pension of 112.80 euros. You should definitely not miss out on this pension bonus per child.
More pension and more waiting time for every child
In order to secure the salary points, an application must be submitted to “”. The basic requirement is that you raise your child yourself. And the principle is that the parent who primarily looks after the child is entitled to the salary points.
If parents raise their child together, the claim goes to the mother. Although the parenting time can also be transferred to the father, this requires a joint declaration, i.e. the mother’s explicit consent. As a mother, I wouldn’t make any compromises here, unless you earn significantly more than your father and he primarily takes care of childcare. Otherwise not.
Upbringing
Changing diapers, brushing teeth, listening: scenes from the everyday family life of young fathers
Why does the application sound so complicated? Because it’s not just the parenting periods that increase the pension. Ten years of consideration are also recognized, which in turn extends the minimum insurance period. This plays a role if we want to retire earlier or receive benefits at all, because this requires a minimum insurance period of five years.
Pension only upon application
Anyone who doesn’t care about their entitlements will have mail from their pension insurance in their mailbox around the age of 43. In it: the insurance history with the request to check it. However, there is no request to register child-rearing periods in the envelope. That is our responsibility.
Important when it comes to retirement: no application, no pension! The pension insurance company recommends requesting your pension from them at least three months before the start of your pension. Otherwise no money will flow. I also recommend talking to freelancers one to two years before you plan to retire. They will help you to submit all applications for the new phase of your life on time and to secure any further claims you may have.
Source: Stern
