Miners' compensation compensation benefit
The miners' compensation benefit (also abbreviated to KAL) was legally introduced with Section 98a of the Reichsknappschaftsgesetz in 1963 as an “adjustment allowance” for laid-off workers in the mining industry.
General
The background to this legal regulation was the need to supply older workers in the mining industry, who were affected by the coal crisis that broke out between 1957 and the beginning of 1963 by losing their jobs and who could no longer be placed in other jobs. Professional aptitude and special experience over decades prevented reintegration into an alternative working life by means of short-term “bridging measures” such as unemployment benefits , because permanent unemployment was threatened.
With the Pension Reform Act from 1992 and the newly created § 239 SGB VI , this regulation is still reflected in the crisis-ridden hard coal industry .
Insured persons who have worked underground and who leave a miner's business after reaching the age of 55 receive the compensation for miners, provided that they have fulfilled the waiting period of 25 years with miner's contribution periods . The law provides for several "types".
Eligibility requirements
The miners' compensation benefit (KAL) is a pension ( § 33 , 239 SGB VI) to which there is a legal claim, provided that the legal eligibility requirements are met.
The granting of the KAL depends, among other things, on the insured retiring from employment in a miner's business after reaching the age of 55. Retirement after the age of 50 is possible if an adjustment allowance (APG) is received for laid-off workers in the mining industry up to the age of 55.
Additional earnings
Section 34 (3) No. 1 SGB VI applies accordingly to additional earnings . The relevant additional income limit for employment outside a miner's business is (as with a full old-age pension) from January 1, 2013, EUR 450 (until December 31, 2012: EUR 400). It is not possible to draw the KAL as a partial pension. If you resume employment in a miner's business, you are no longer entitled to the KAL.
Tax impact
As a benefit from the statutory pension insurance, the KAL belongs to other income within the meaning of Section 22 No. 1 Sentence 3 lit. a lit. aa EStG and is therefore taxable afterwards.
As with the other pensions of the statutory pension insurance, the amounts of the KAL are transmitted to the ZfA by the Deutsche Rentenversicherung Knappschaft-Bahn-See within the framework of the pension receipt notification procedure according to § 22a EStG.
Web links
- German pension insurance , miners and their pension: This is how you are protected , 14th edition, as of: 07/2019 ( PDF )