Minimum earnings points for low earnings

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Not to be confused with the previous regulation, pension based on minimum income .

The regulation of the minimum earnings points for low earnings (short: pension according to minimum earnings points ) increases periods prior to 1992 with low pension entitlements. Times of low wages should not lead to low pensions.

In 1992 it replaced the regulation of the minimum income pension . To this day, these two regulations are often confused with each other or their names are used synonymously.

Legal basis

The regulation of the 'minimum wage points for low wages' was introduced with the Pension Reform Act '92 ( Federal Law Gazette 1989 I p. 2261 ) and is  standardized in Section 262 SGB ​​VI. For pensions received from 1992 onwards, it replaced the regulations on pensions based on minimum income . Transitional provisions were created for existing pensions on December 31, 1991 .

entry requirements

Two requirements must be met:

  1. In total (including the periods from 1992 onwards) there must be at least 35 years of legal pension periods . These include contribution periods , non-contributory periods and periods of consideration .
  2. The average of the pension entitlement from full compulsory contribution periods (including the periods from 1992) must be below 75 percent of the average income. Exactly: the calendar months with full compulsory contributions must result in an average value of less than 0.0625 earnings points (= 0.75 earnings points per year).

Effect of the scheme

If the prerequisites are met, additional earnings points will only be determined for the full compulsory contributions prior to 1992. The average earnings points for full compulsory contribution periods are then increased by 50 percent (multiplied by 1.5). Together with the earnings points determined in this way, the average for full compulsory contribution periods prior to 1992 may amount to a maximum of 0.0625 earnings points per calendar month (corresponds to 75 percent of the pension entitlement of the average income).

If the limit of 0.0625 per calendar month is exceeded, the additional remuneration points are reduced accordingly until an average of 0.0625 remuneration points per calendar month is obtained. The additional earnings points determined in this way are allocated in equal parts to the individual calendar months with full compulsory contributions.

If there are calendar months with pay points (east), these calendar months are also assigned pay points (east) ( Section 262 (2) SGB VI).

Examples

Example 1:

One person has met the entry requirements. Before 1992 there were 120 calendar months (= ten years) with full compulsory contributions with an average of 0.035 earnings points (corresponds to 42 percent of the average income). The sum of 4.2 earnings points (120 * 0.035) would be multiplied by 1.5. The resulting 6.3 earnings points would be distributed over the 120 calendar months and would result in an average of 0.0525 earnings points (i.e. less than the maximum limit of 0.0625 earnings points).

The additional 2.1 earnings points (6.3 minus 4.2) would now be distributed evenly over the calendar months. This means that even if individual calendar months had more than 0.0625 earnings points (which would be possible with an average), 0.0175 (2.1 earnings points divided by 120 calendar months) would still be assigned additional earnings points.

Example 2:

If the average of earnings points from 120 calendar months with full compulsory contribution periods before 1992 were 0.05 earnings points, multiplied by 1.5 would result in a monthly average of 0.075. The additional pay points would be reduced to 0.0125 pay points per calendar month. So 'only' 0.0125 would be assigned to each calendar month. As a result, the average for the compulsory contribution periods prior to 1992 would be a maximum of 0.0625 earnings points per calendar month.

Differences to pension based on minimum income

Significant changes compared to the previous regulation, pension based on minimum income, were to set the entry requirement at 35 instead of 25 insurance years. In addition, your own pension entitlements will be increased on a percentage basis and capped at a maximum of 75 percent, instead of increasing the pension entitlement to a flat rate of 75 percent as before. The purpose of the law was evidenced by the fact that long-term low part-time work (with less than 50 percent of the average income) should not be promoted excessively.

Transitional provisions

For existing pensions on December 31, 1991, which were determined in accordance with the law of the Federal Republic of Germany in force before 1992 , Art. 82 of the Pension Reform Act 1992 ( Federal Law Gazette 1989 I pp. 2261, 2392 ) applied. Accordingly, for pensions that were granted before December 31, 1991, the earnings points for full compulsory contribution periods after December 31, 1972 were increased according to the same provisions as § 262 SGB VI on January 1, 1992.

For existing pensions on December 31, 1991, which were determined in accordance with the law of the accession area (the German Democratic Republic ) in force before 1992 , this is regulated in Section 307a of SGB ​​VI. Accordingly, pensions that are based on at least 35 years of work and have an average of less than 0.75 earnings points per work year are increased to 1.5 times the value. The 'pension based on minimum earnings points' has thus been extended to include contribution periods in the accession area. Since there were no child-rearing and child-consideration periods in the accession area, it is also regulated that a child-rearing allowance is added to the 35 working years. This flat rate is ten years for one child, 15 years for two children and 20 years for more than two children.

For pensions of the acceding area transferred in accordance with the entitlement and expectancy transfer law, Section 307b SGB ​​VI applied. Accordingly, the regulation of the minimum wage points for low wages for these pensions is also applied analogously to the periods before 1992.

Current reference

In total, more than 3.4 million pensions in the 31 December 2011 pension portfolio benefit from the 'pension based on minimum earnings points' (or the transitional provisions). In detail these are:

  • 349,122 disability pensions, 245,837 of them to women
  • 2,733,172 old-age pensions, of which 2,467,014 to women
  • 397,701 survivors' pensions, of which 166,895 widow's pensions.

Of the increased pensions, around 71 percent of 2,434,494 are limited to a maximum of 0.0625 earnings points per calendar month.

In the current pension debate, it is often demanded that the pension be continued according to minimum earnings points (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 or a certain insurance period) (e.g. Alliance 90 / The Greens : Concept of a ' guaranteed pension ' or the first drafts of the BMAS for ' Supplementary pension '). Such demands essentially correspond to the pension according to the minimum income , which also raised the pensions to a uniform level regardless of the own contribution amount. Most of the demands, however, take the regulation of the 'minimum wage points for low wages', to increase one's own contributions by a certain percentage, as a starting point (e.g. the BMAS subsidy pension in its later remarks). ver.di , DGB , SPD , DIE LINKE u. a. directly demand the continuation of the minimum earnings points with low earnings.

criticism

There are two main points of criticism of the regulation of minimum earnings points for low earnings :

  1. It breaks with the principle of participation equivalence, according to which the pension amount should be based on the amount of the insured income. The pension entitlements of people who earned less than 75 percent of the average wage on average are increased without making an own contribution. A person who always earned 75 percent and made contributions on it does not get more pension than a person who earned only 50 percent of the average and has accordingly paid fewer contributions. In addition, a person with 75 percent of the average income finances the pension based on minimum earnings points through their contributions.
  2. 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.

Web links

Johannes Steffen : Low wages and pensions (PDF; 469 kB), Bremen Chamber of Employees, accessed April 9, 2013.

Legal work instructions for Section 262, German Pension Insurance, accessed April 10, 2013.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Draft of the Pension Reform Act '92 (PDF; 5.1 MB), p. 201. Website of the German Bundestag. Retrieved April 9, 2013.
  2. ↑ Legal work instructions of the German pension insurance , § 262 SGB VI
  3. ↑ 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. 22, Table 27.00G, Ed .: Deutsche Rentenversicherung Bund, 2012 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.deutsche-rentenversicherung.de
  4. ↑ http://www.gruene-bundestag.de/fileadmin/media/gruenebundestag_de/fraktion/beschluesse/Beschluss_Garantierente.pdf
  5. ↑ http://www.sozialpolitik-aktuell.de/tl_files/sozialpolitik-aktuell/_Kontrovers/Altersarmut/2011-10-04%20Zuschussrente2.pdf
  6. ↑ http://www.sozialpolitik-aktuell.de/tl_files/sozialpolitik-aktuell/_Kontrovers/Rente67/Referentenentwurf%2022-3-2012%20RV-Lebensleistungsanerkennungsgesetz.pdf
  7. ↑ https://arbeitsmarkt-und-sozialpolitik.verdi.de/++file++531deedf6f6844767e00032b/download/sopoaktuell%20Nr%20125%20-%20verdi-Stellungnahme%20AltersSichStaerkG.pdf
  8. ↑ http://www.dgb.de/presse/++co++a89da7ba-5bd6-11e2-be73-00188b4dc422
  9. ↑ http://www.spdfraktion.de/presse/pressemitteilungen/Von_der_Leyens_Zuschussrente_l%C3%B6st_das_Problem_nicht
  10. ↑ 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.linksfraktion.de
  11. ↑ cf. E.g. opinion on the pension according to minimum earnings points (PDF; 718 kB) of the Federation of German Employers' Associations