Child-rearing time

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The child-rearing period is a period under pension law in the statutory pension insurance system in Germany, which, as a mandatory contribution period, can have the effect of establishing and increasing pensions. According to the definition in Section 56, Book Six of the Social Security Code (SGB VI), child-rearing periods are times when a child is brought up in their first three years of life . For children born before January 1, 1992, the child-rearing period was only one year until June 2014 ( Section 249 SGB ​​VI); since July 1, 2014 it has been two years for these children. The pension entitlement resulting from the child-rearing period was sometimes also referred to as “ mother's pension ” in the 2013 Bundestag election campaign . As of January 1, 2019, the child-rearing period for these children was then increased from 24 to 30 months (so-called "Mothers Pension II"). In both cases, however, it is not a separate type of pension. Parenting fathers may also be eligible.

Development history

During the reform period around 1900, the first voices were heard in Germany calling for maternity insurance - as it was called at the time. Leading the way was the movement of the New Ethics around the activist Helene Stöcker and the maternity protection association initiated by her and Ruth Bré . Stöcker saw it as a problem that women were almost always economically dependent on men and therefore had no freedom to make their own life decisions. It should be possible to raise the costs through “contributions from both sexes as well as grants from public funds”.

The crediting of a child-rearing period was introduced in Germany in 1986 under the catchphrase "baby year" by the survivors' pensions and parental leave law. Mothers and fathers born in 1921 or later were granted one insurance year for bringing up a child. The child-rearing periods were taken into account for the first time for insurance cases that occurred after December 30, 1985.

For mothers born before 1921 (" Trümmerfrauen "), the Child Raising Benefits Act gradually introduced a special child rearing benefit in the form of a pension that corresponds to the amount of the child rearing period.

With the entry into force of the Pension Reform Act 1992, the child-rearing periods in the statutory pension insurance for children born after 1992 were extended from one to three years. The child-rearing period for children born before 1992 was extended from one to two years from July 2014 by the RV Performance Improvement Act. In order to simplify the administration, a flat-rate special regulation was created for the approximately 9 million existing pensions with child-rearing periods prior to 1992 (for more details see allocation of the child-rearing period ).

Since June 1999 the federal government has been paying contributions to the general pension insurance for child-rearing periods ( Section 177 SGB ​​VI).

Allocation of child-rearing time

The child-rearing period is assigned to the parent who raised the child ( Section 56 (2) SGB VI).

If the parents raise their child together, they can choose to which parent the child-rearing period should be allocated by declaring their allocation decision to the responsible pension insurance institution. You can also divide the parental leave among each other and change the division several times, but always only for full calendar months.

The agreement of the parents can only be given with effect for future calendar months. However, the assignment can also be made retrospectively for up to two calendar months before the declaration is submitted.

If a matching declaration is not, not compliant or otherwise not legally effective, in particular not made in time, the pension insurance institution will assign the child-rearing period to the parent who predominantly raised the child. If it is not possible to determine who predominantly raised the child, the parenting period is assigned to the mother.

Section 307d SGB ​​VI provides for a special regulation , which was introduced within the framework of the RV Performance Improvement Act. According to this, for a child born before 1992, a flat-rate personal earnings point can be assigned regardless of the actual upbringing for the second year of life. This applies if a person was already drawing (having received) a pension on June 30, 2014 and the 12th month of the child-rearing period of the child born before 1992 is in their pension account. In this respect, the principle and judicial principle is broken, according to which the child-rearing period must always be assigned to the person who actually raised the child predominantly during the period in question. In the cases of § 307d SGB VI, this does not beneficiary who actually (temporarily) raised the child in the second year, according loses § 249 para. 8 SGB VI entitlement to additional parental leave (for the 13th to the 24th calendar month after Birth).

A largely analogous regulation applies with regard to the introduction of additional child-rearing periods for the 25th to 30th month of life after birth on January 1, 2019.

Recognition of child-rearing periods

The determination of times as child-rearing times must be requested (together with the child consideration times ) by submitting the parent book or the birth certificates of the children to the responsible pension insurance institution.

The child-rearing period always begins after the month of birth. If a child is admitted after the month of birth, there are correspondingly reduced child-rearing times for the person admitting the child. The child-rearing period ends after 36 calendar months for children born after December 31, 1991 ( Section 56 ).

For children born before January 1, 1992, only the first 12 calendar months after birth were initially taken into account. The RV Performance Improvement Act, which came into force on July 1, 2014, extended the child-rearing period from 12 to 24 calendar months. The RV Performance Improvement and Stabilization Act, which came into force on January 1, 2019, resulted in a further extension to 30 calendar months. Mothers and fathers who were already drawing a pension on June 30, 2014 and December 31, 2018, respectively, also benefit from the two extensions. Your pension has been recalculated by taking into account a surcharge of one personal income point on July 1, 2014 and a supplement of half a personal income point on January 1, 2019 ( Section 307d SGB ​​VI, new version). The prerequisite for this is that a child-rearing period for the twelfth calendar month after the end of the month of birth has already been taken into account in the existing pension for a child born before January 1, 1992.

If the parent bringing up another child is bringing up another child during a child-rearing period, for which further child-rearing time is to be credited, the child-rearing period for this and each further child is extended by the number of calendar months of simultaneous upbringing, i.e. H. for example, twins born from 1992 onwards by 3 to 6 years.

Child-rearing periods can be credited to biological parents, adoptive parents, step-parents and (non-professional) foster parents.

A child-rearing period is taken into account if

  • the upbringing of the child is attributable to the applicant,
  • the upbringing took place in the Federal Republic or an EU member state - due to the freedom of establishment and
  • the applicant is not excluded from crediting.

In addition to simultaneous contribution periods from gainful employment, child-rearing periods are only credited to the pension up to the income threshold (in 2019 the income threshold in the old federal states is € 6,700 and in the new federal states € 6,150).

Contribution payment by the federal government

Child-rearing periods are compulsory contribution periods. Since June 1999, the contributions for child-rearing periods have been paid by the federal government in the form of a lump-sum payment for the contribution payments for child-rearing periods to the general pension insurance ( Section 177 SGB ​​VI). Before June 1, 1999, compulsory contributions were considered to have been paid for periods of parenting. Until then, the federal subsidy included a flat-rate reimbursement for the expenses of the pension insurance from the crediting of child-rearing periods .

The amount of the current flat rate contribution is updated annually. The decisive factor here is the development of gross wages and salaries, the contribution rate to general pension insurance and the number of children under the age of three. For 2013, the lump sum is just under 11.6 billion euros (out of a total of 81.2 billion euros in total federal payments for pension insurance).

The lump-sum federal contribution will not be increased in connection with the extension of child-rearing periods for children born before January 1, 1992 from 12 to 24 months (so-called “ mother's pension ”) , which will apply from July 1, 2014 , even though the federal government is in favor of this measure annual additional expenditure of approx. 6.7 billion euros is forecast. Among other things, because of the additional benefits for raising children, only the general federal grant will be increased by EUR 400 million in each case from 2019 to 2022.

Effects of child-rearing periods on pension

Pension-establishing effect

By legal fiction, child-rearing periods are considered contribution periods. They are offset against the waiting times that must be completed as a prerequisite for a pension (minimum insurance periods). Since a waiting period of five years has to be completed for the standard old-age pension, a person who has only completed five years of child-rearing can already receive the standard old-age pension without ever having paid any pension contributions.

Pension increasing effect

Child-rearing periods are rated as compulsory contribution periods for an average earner ( average wage ). This corresponds to one pay point per year or 0.0833 pay points for each calendar month ( Section 70 (2) SGB VI). Based on the current pension value that has been in effect since July 1, 2014, this results in a monthly pension of € 28.61 in the old and € 26.39 in the new federal states for each year of child-rearing.

Additive crediting

If child-rearing periods and other contribution periods coincide, for example with periods of employment of the parent who is subject to social insurance contributions during the child-rearing period, the resulting earnings points and the earnings points for the child-raising period are added together ( Section 70 (2) sentence 2 SGB VI). A maximum of the total value that an income in the amount of the contribution assessment ceiling receives is taken into account .

In 2011, the income threshold (West) was 66,000 euros and the average income was 32,100 euros. In 2011, a maximum of 2.05 earnings points could be earned. The child-rearing points are reduced accordingly, so that the total of earnings points from employment and child-rearing is a maximum of 2.05. With an income of more than 33,705 euros (in the West) in 2011, the child-rearing periods were limited accordingly. If a person had an annual income of EUR 49,755, they could have received an additional maximum of 0.5 earnings points for child-rearing periods. In the case of a person who earns at or above the contribution assessment limit, the child-rearing periods no longer have a pension-increasing effect, since the maximum possible pension entitlement is earned from the earned income.

The additional crediting of child-rearing times goes back to a decision of the Federal Constitutional Court of March 12, 1996, in which the previously applicable statutory provisions on the assessment of child-rearing periods in terms of pension law when they coincide with contribution periods were declared unconstitutional due to a violation of the principle of equal treatment.

Raising children and a survivor's pension

With the pension structure reform of 2001 , to compensate for the reduction in the “large” widow's pension from 60 to 55 percent of the pension of the deceased partner, a dynamic supplement to earnings points was introduced, which survivors who have raised children receive; since then, survivors who have had a pension split and are raising a child may be entitled to an education pension . A comparison of model calculations on the effects of this pension reform showed, however, that the “child-related benefits” have the most favorable effects for housewives , while they are only neutral for women who work part-time and one for women who work full-time compared to the previous law cause a not insignificant reduction in the pension amount.

Treatment for pension adjustment

Child-rearing periods are generally included in the pension adjustment carried out by the family court in the event of a divorce . Through the pension equalization, the pension entitlements of both spouses acquired during the marriage are added and half of them are credited to each spouse.

If a divorced person is only credited with child-rearing time after the pension adjustment has been carried out, which results from the marriage period, the requirements for a recalculation of the pension adjustment may be given. A corresponding application can be made if at least one of the two divorced persons is already drawing a pension or will retire within the next six months. The subsequent crediting of a child-rearing period can result from the introduction of the so-called mother's pension from July 1, 2014. The parent bringing up children receives an additional 12 months of child-rearing time for children born before January 1, 1992.

Cross-country comparison

  • In the FRG, child-rearing times and periods of consideration compensate for shorter parenting phases.
    Longer exits from employment or part-time employment, however, reduce the pension significantly. Independent coverage depends on whether you can return to the labor market.
  • In Denmark and Sweden, the basic pension system provides a poverty-proof, independent old-age security even when bringing up children.
    The high labor force participation of women, too, makes the compensation of family time largely insignificant.
  • In Italy, child-rearing periods are taken into account in the statutory pension insurance, but not in addition to claims from gainful employment.
    The labor force participation of women there is significantly lower than that of men compared to EU countries in Western and Northern Europe.
  • In the Netherlands, too, family phases reduce pensions. Family times are not taken into account, but the basic pension system enables poverty-proof old-age security for long-term working life.
  • In Austria, family phases are rewarded in a similar way as in the FRG.
    The pension benefits reach higher values ​​than in the FRG, but here, too, one relies on a high participation in the labor force and punishes permanent exits from work.

criticism

In the context of the project “Raising children as a constitutive element of statutory pension insurance” carried out by the Otto Wolff Institute for Economic Regulation, criticism was raised of the unequal crediting of child rearing for statutory pension insurance. Instead of the existing regulations through child-rearing periods and child-consideration periods , it would be more appropriate to assign uniform child-related pension entitlements to all parents.

The Federal Association of Foster and Adoptive Families (PFAD) criticized the fact that adopting parents in particular would be disadvantaged compared to their biological parents as a result of the assessment based on the time of birth, and that, as of July 1, 2014, existing pensioners who accepted a child born before 1992 into the family in the second year of life had no child-rearing periods were credited.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ [1]
  2. ↑ Leaflet of the Federation for Mutterschutz, No. 1: What does the German Bund für Mutterschutz, quoted in: Helene Stöcker: Lebenserinnerungen, ed. by Reinhold Lütgemeier-Davin u. Kerstin Wolff. Cologne: Böhlau, 2015, 289.
  3. ↑ Law on the reorganization of survivor's pensions as well as on the recognition of child-rearing periods in the statutory pension insurance (Survivors' Pension and Parenting Periods Act - HEZG) of July 11, 1985 ( Federal Law Gazette I, p. 1450 ).
  4. ↑ § 5c New Employment Insurance Act (ArVNG) and § 6c New Employee Insurance Act (AnVNG) in the version of the Survivors' Pension and Parental Leave Act (HZEG) of July 11, 1985 ( Federal Law Gazette I p. 1464 )
  5. ^ Bielefeld University: History of equality - Chronicle .
  6. ↑ regulated today in §§ 294–299 SGB VI
  7. ↑ Law on benefits from the statutory pension insurance for child-rearing for mothers born before 1921 (Child Raising Benefits Act - KLG) of July 12, 1987 ( Federal Law Gazette I, p. 1585 ).
  8. ↑ Law on the Reform of Statutory Pension Insurance (Pension Reform Act 1992 - RRG 1992) of December 18, 1989 ( Federal Law Gazette I p. 2261 ).
  9. ↑ Law on performance improvements in statutory pension insurance (RV Performance Improvement Act) of 23 June 2014 ( Federal Law Gazette I p. 787 ), text and synopsis of the changes
  10. ^ History of the Ministry. ( Memento of the original from September 16, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. by the Federal Ministry for Family, Seniors, Women and Youth @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bmfsfj.de
  11. ↑ Law on performance improvements in statutory pension insurance (RV Performance Improvement Act) of 23 June 2014 ( Federal Law Gazette I p. 787 ), text and synopsis of the changes.
  12. ↑ Law on performance improvements and stabilization in the statutory pension insurance (RV performance improvement and stabilization law) - RVLSG ; of November 28, 2018 ( Federal Law Gazette I, p. 2016 )
  13. ↑ BStMAS social primer for child rearing times
  14. ↑ German pension insurance - raising children: Your plus for the pension, p. 17.
  15. ↑ Announcement of the federal contribution payment for child-rearing periods for the year 2013 from December 17, 2012, Federal Gazette Official Part December 24, 2012 B4; The exact amount is 11 584 980 630.78 euros.
  16. ↑ BFM Federal Finance Plan 2013 to 2017 ( Memento of the original from February 25, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bundesfinanzministerium.de
  17. ↑ Bundestag printed matter 18/909, p. 3.
  18. ↑ Section 213 (2) SGB VI in the version applicable from July 1, 2014.
  19. ↑ The Federal Constitutional Court raised no constitutional objections to this cap, decision of August 29, 2007, 1 BvR 858/03
  20. ↑ Decision of March 12, 1996, 1 ​​BvR 609, 692/90, BVerfGE 94, 241
  21. ↑ Pension reform 2001, section “Further consequences of the 2001 pension reform”. German Trade Union Federation, September 3, 2007, accessed March 8, 2014 .
  22. ^ Anne Langelüddeke, Birgitta Rabe: Effects of the pension structure reform on the old-age security of women. In: femina politica. Volume 10, Issue 1, 2001, pp. 80–85, 81. Quoted from: Sabine Berghahn : Marriage as a transition labor market? , Discussion Paper FS I 01–207, Social Science Research Center Berlin, November 2001, ISSN No. 1011–9523, p.51
  23. ↑ Article 1 No. 10 (Section 249 (1) SGB VI) and No. 15 (Section 307d SGB VI) of the RV Performance Improvement Act.
  24. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from June 24, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.deutsche-rentenversicherung.de
  25. ↑ Florian Blank, Sonja Blum: CHILD EDUCATION TIME IN OLD SECURITY - A comparison of six European countries. (PDF) February 2017, accessed March 7, 2017 . [2]
  26. ↑ Barbara Henman, Michael Voigtländer: Inadequate consideration of raising children as the cause of the pension crisis. (PDF; 54 kB) In: Otto Wolff Institute Discussion Paper 4/2003. Otto Wolff Institute for Economic Regulation, September 2003, accessed on January 14, 2009 . P. 11.
  27. ↑ Child adopted and now second class mother. welt.de, June 9, 2015, accessed on July 6, 2015 .