Minimum income pension
- Not to be confused with the regulation of the minimum wage points for low wages , often called pension according to minimum wage points .
The minimum income pension was a regulation that upgraded periods prior to 1973 with low pension entitlements. It is intended to prevent low wages, especially among women, from leading to small pensions. It was introduced with the Pension Reform Act of October 16, 1972 ( Federal Law Gazette I, p. 1965 ). It applied to new pensioners after 1972. However, only compulsory contribution periods before 1973 were taken into account and topped up. The legislature assumed that wage discrimination against women and low wages as a whole would be overcome by collective agreements in the future and that such a regulation would no longer be required in the future.
In 1992, a successor regulation came into force with the regulation of the minimum earnings points for low earnings (short: 'Pension after minimum earnings points '). To this day, the 'pension based on minimum income' is regularly confused with the 'pension based on minimum earnings points' or the terms are used synonymously.
Legal basis
The pension according to the minimum income was regulated in Section 55a of the New Employee Pension Insurance Act, in Section 54b of the New Employee Insurance Act and in Section 10a of the Miners' Pension Insurance New Regulation Act.
entry requirements
The person had to have a total of at least 25 years of insurance (including the periods after 1972). Downtime (e.g. unemployment or illness) and voluntary contribution periods are not included.
Effect on the pension amount
If the admission requirements are met and the average value units acquired (today: earnings points ) correspond to the compulsory contribution periods prior to 1973 less than 75 percent of the average earner, the pension entitlements are increased. The additionally determined value units correspond (for the times before 1973) to the difference between the average own value units from compulsory contribution periods in this period and the value units that would have resulted if 75 percent of the average had always been earned during this time. The additional value units determined in this way are not assigned to the individual years, but added to your own pension entitlement as a whole. This has an impact, for example, on pension adjustment.
example
The mode of operation of the pension based on the minimum income should be illustrated using two examples. The graph on the right shows in which years the people earned what percentage of the average income.
Both persons meet the entry requirements (more than 25 contribution years). On average over their entire working life, both pension entitlements correspond to 75 percent of average income. Person A had an average of 45.9 percent and person B 97 percent of the median income in the period before 1973. Person A is below and person B above the 75 percent mark for the relevant period before 1973. This means that person A receives additional pension entitlements, which correspond to the difference of 29.1 percent (75 percent minus 45.9 percent) for 17 years. As a result, person A's pension entitlement is increased by a total of 22 percent. Person B, on the other hand, does not receive any additional pension entitlements and thus has a lower pension in the end with the same contributions. Even a person who consistently earned 75 percent would not be topped up and would also receive a lower pension with the same contributions.
Current reference
Even today (as of December 31, 2011) 551 (thereof 416 women) disability pensions, 75,756 (thereof 63,814 women) old age pensions and 24,894 survivor's pensions (thereof 23,569 for women) benefit from the minimum income pension .
In the current pension debate, there is often a demand to continue the pension according to minimum income or minimum earnings points with low earnings (revised if necessary). In some cases, it is required to raise pensions to a certain level regardless of their own contribution amount (from a certain contribution period) (e.g. Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen : concept of a ' guaranteed pension ' or the first drafts of the BMAS on the 'subsidy pension'). Such demands essentially correspond to the pension according to the minimum income, which also raised the pension to a uniform level regardless of the own contribution amount. Most demands, however, take the regulation of the minimum wage points for low wages, to increase one's own contributions by a certain percentage, as the starting point (e.g. the subsidy pension of the BMAS in its later remarks, ver.di , DGB , SPD and DIE LINKE among others directly demand the Continuation of minimum earnings points with low earnings).
criticism
There are two main criticisms of the minimum income pension:
- It breaks with the principle of participation equivalence, according to which the pension amount should be based on the amount of the insured income. All people who earned less than 75 percent on average in the period before 1973 are increased to 75 percent. A person who always earned 75 percent and then paid contributions on it receives no more pension than a person who earned only 15 percent of the average and, in comparison, has only paid a fifth of the contributions. A person with 75 percent of the average income finances the minimum income pension through their contributions.
- Low pension entitlements do not necessarily correspond to a low retirement income. Since the regulation only takes into account the income subject to pension insurance and the pension entitlements, it is not targeted. A “earning” wife may not be at risk of poverty due to her husband's pension entitlements, even with a low pension. For a couple household, however, a pension based on 75 percent of average income often does not prevent poverty. Here too, the person who earns 75 percent helps to finance the costs of the scheme.
For criticism, see, for example, the opinion of the Confederation of German Employers' Associations . Linguistically, this refers to the pension according to the minimum income, but actually means the minimum earnings points for low wages. The functioning of both regulations is very similar and the criticisms are therefore largely identical.
Web links
A more detailed paper by the Bremen Chamber of Employees on the subject of low wages and pensions (PDF; 469 kB). It is u. a. also deals with the pension based on minimum income and minimum earnings points for low earnings.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Dr. Friedrich Pappai, "Pension according to minimum income" in Bundesarbeitsblatt 1973, Ed .: The Federal Minister for Labor and Social Affairs, Bonn, 1973, p. 147
- ↑ Statistic volume pension inventory on December 31, 2011 ( Memento of the original from April 17, 2013 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. (PDF; 4.3 MB), p. 21 (table: 27.00 G), publisher: Deutsche Rentenversicherung Bund, 2012
- ↑ http://www.gruene-bundestag.de/fileadmin/media/gruenebundestag_de/fraktion/beschluesse/Beschluss_Garantierente.pdf
- ↑ http://www.sozialpolitik-aktuell.de/tl_files/sozialpolitik-aktuell/_Kontrovers/Altersarmut/2011-10-04%20Zuschussrente2.pdf
- ↑ http://www.sozialpolitik-aktuell.de/tl_files/sozialpolitik-aktuell/_Kontrovers/Rente67/Referentenentwurf%2022-3-2012%20RV-Lebensleistungsanerkennungsgesetz.pdf
- ↑ https://arbeitsmarkt-und-sozialpolitik.verdi.de/++file++531deedf6f6844767e00032b/download/sopoaktuell%20Nr%20125%20-%20verdi-Stellungnahme%20AltersSichStaerkG.pdf
- ↑ http://www.dgb.de/presse/++co++a89da7ba-5bd6-11e2-be73-00188b4dc422
- ↑ http://www.spdfraktion.de/presse/pressemitteilungen/Von_der_Leyens_Zuschussrente_l%C3%B6st_das_Problem_nicht
- ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from May 22, 2013 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.
- ↑ Statement (PDF; 718 kB)
