Foreign Pension Act
| Basic data | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Foreign Pension Act |
| Previous title: | Foreign pension and foreign pension law |
| Abbreviation: | FRG |
| Type: | Federal law |
| Scope: | Federal Republic of Germany |
| Legal matter: | Social law |
| References : | 824-2 |
| Original version from: | August 7, 1953 ( BGBl. I p. 848 ) |
| Entry into force on: | April 1, 1952 |
| New announcement from: | February 25, 1960 ( Federal Law Gazette I pp. 93, 94 ) |
| Last change by: |
Art. 7 G of November 11, 2016 ( BGBl. I p. 2500, 2511 ) FRNG: Art. 303 VO of June 19, 2020 ( BGBl. I p. 1328, 1363 ) |
| Effective date of the last change: |
November 17, 2016 (Art. 23 G of November 11, 2016) FRNG: June 27, 2020 (Art. 361 Regulation of June 19, 2020) |
| GESTA : | G029 |
| Please note the note on the applicable legal version. | |
The German Foreign Pension Act regulates the conditions under which displaced persons and ethnic German repatriates receive a pension for - "foreign" - activities performed abroad in Germany. According to the integration principle, this law is intended to place them as if they had spent their professional and insurance lives in the Federal Republic of Germany.
Legal development
In the first few years after the end of the war, individual refugee pension laws were passed at the state level. Uniform federal regulations were then introduced for the first time by the Foreign Pension and Foreign Pension Act (FAG) of August 7, 1953 ( Federal Law Gazette I, p. 848 ), which came into force retroactively on April 1, 1952. It was based on the principle of compensation, ie the entitlements to which the FAG was entitled depended on the entitlements and entitlements the person concerned would have had in his or her area of origin.
The Foreign Pension and Foreign Pension Act was only intended as a transitional regulation from the start. It was therefore changed in essential points seven years after its entry into force by the Foreign Pension and Foreign Pension New Regulation Act (FANG) of February 25, 1960 ( Federal Law Gazette I p. 93 ); Article 1 of which contained the Foreign Pension Act (FRG) . The changes made with FANG came into effect retrospectively on January 1, 1959. The FRG was no longer based on the principle of compensation, but on the idea of integrating the displaced.
Apart from minor changes and additions, the External Pension Act and its regulations remained largely unchanged for around 30 years. The legal development in the German pension insurance , the actual and legal changes in the regions of origin and, last but not least, the dramatic increase in the number of repatriates at the end of the 1980s made it necessary to adapt the law on third-party pensions. This took place within the framework of the Pension Reform Act 1992 (RRG '92) . The main focus of the changes was on strengthening the integration principle and on greater differentiation in the assessment of the times with which, in individual cases, possible better positions of the FRG beneficiaries compared to the local insured should be avoided. The changes came into force at different times, mostly on July 1, 1990, and partly also on January 1, 1992.
Even before these new regulations could take effect, the FRG was again in need of reform as a result of political developments in Germany. As an immediate measure, the scope of the FRG with regard to the GDR times was restricted by Article 23 § 1 of the State Treaty Act . The final corrections were then made by the Pension Transition Act (RÜG) of July 25, 1991. The changes were related in particular to the standardization of pension law (extension of the FRG to the accession area , non-application of the FRG to GDR times) and the modification of the integration principle ( Orientation of the assessment to the conditions in the accession area). They came into force on August 1, 1991 and January 1, 1992. Minor retrospective corrections to the Pension Transition Act were made by the Pension Transition Supplementary Act .
The Growth and Employment Promotion Act then made significant cuts in the FRG services . It intensified the lowering of the tabular values started with the RÜG, with which an integration into structurally weak areas of Germany is to be simulated. The FRG benefits have been limited to a maximum value for new beneficiaries. These two changes took effect on May 7, 1996. In addition, as of January 1, 1997, there were a few minor adjustments to the general pension law.
The changes made by the Pension Reform Act 1999 (RRG '99) were not that significant. The improvements (effective July 1, 1998) in the evaluation of child-rearing times were transferred to the FRG; at the same time, however, the periods of raising children (as well as periods of military service ) were included in the general lowering of the values. Otherwise there were only minor corrections.
The same applies to the following legal changes due to various laws. The Old Age Assets Supplementation Act on January 1, 2002, significantly restricted the entitlement to a survivor's pension .
The accession of numerous countries of origin to the European Union had basically no effects on the FRG. Its application was retained; partly due to corresponding entries in the appendix of Regulation (EEC) No. 1408/71, partly due to a new property protection regulation within the framework of the RV Sustainability Act .
Principles of the Foreign Pension Act
The starting point for the creation of the FRG was the then § 90 Federal Expellees Act . It was regulated there that
- In terms of social security, displaced persons and refugees from the Soviet zone are given the same status as those entitled in Germany (paragraph 1),
- Displaced persons and refugees from the Soviet zone can assert these rights and expectancies with the German insurance carriers on the basis of German regulations instead of the claims and entitlements previously acquired in their area of origin (paragraph 2) and
- Further details are regulated by law (paragraph 3).
This legal basis was created by the FRG. Until the unification of Germany, it also applied to matters relating to the GDR, but since January 1, 1992 it has only applied to matters abroad.
The FRG is shaped by the idea of integration, ie the beneficiaries are treated as if they had not spent their insurance life in their country of origin but in Germany. Based on this principle, the FRG primarily contains regulations as to whether and, if so, which unfamiliar times are treated as equivalent in the German pension insurance and how these are assessed. When evaluating the times, the basic principle has been modified by the Pension Transition Act and the Growth and Employment Promotion Act in such a way that integration does not take place according to overall German conditions, but is based on structurally weak areas and the income structure of the GDR.
Typical countries with FRG entitlement include Yugoslavia , Poland , Czechoslovakia and their successor states, Hungary , Romania or the Soviet Union or their successor states.
Structure of the Foreign Pension Act
- Common regulations (§§ 1 to 4)
- Statutory accident insurance (§§ 5 to 13)
- Statutory pension insurance (Sections 14 to 31)
- Attachments (tables)
