Insurance office
An insurance office is an office of the local or municipal administration in Germany .
Duties of the insurance offices
According to Section 93, Paragraph 1, Clause 1 of Book IV of the Social Code, the insurance offices have to provide information in all matters of social insurance (statutory pension insurance, statutory accident insurance, statutory health insurance, social long-term care insurance, right to employment promotion) and assign other information to them by law or by other law Perform tasks. In addition, they must accept applications for social insurance benefits (Section 93 (2) sentence 1 SGB IV) and, at the request of the insurance carrier, clarify the facts, add evidence, comment on the facts relevant to the decision, if necessary, and submit documents to the insurance carrier immediately forward (Section 93 (2) sentence 2 SGB IV).
The main focus of the activities of the insurance offices is in the field of statutory pension insurance . All services are provided free of charge (Section 64 (1) SGB X).
About the state law are z. B. in Bavaria, according to Article 3 of the Act to Implement the Social Security Code (AGSGB), the tasks of the insurance offices are transferred to the district office (state insurance office) and the independent municipality (municipal insurance office).
The insurance offices carry out their tasks under their own authority . You perform your own tasks; they do not act on behalf of the insurance carriers, to which they are neither integrated nor affiliated, and are not bound by their instructions. Their work is also in the interests of the insurance carriers by making their work easier and, in particular in the case of a benefit application, doing some of the preparatory work required to process the applications; however, they have no official duties towards the insurance carriers. Rather, their employees, when they provide information to the citizen, act in the perception of the general public interest in a well-functioning administration. Their activity only serves the interests of the citizen. Those looking for information who are often ignorant of the law, unfamiliar and who rely on expert help should have an additional, local and easily accessible office that is responsible for their request for information and makes it easier for them to exercise, prosecute and enforce their social rights. In this respect, the insurance offices are clearly and accurately described as mediators between the insurance carrier and the insured. In accordance with this function, everyone has a legal right to receive information. However, the insurance offices are not obliged to provide information ex officio, but only if there is a corresponding request for information.
Jurisdiction
According to this, the insurance office is responsible in whose district the beneficiary has his domicile or habitual abode or his place of employment or place of activity at the time of the application. If there is no such in Germany, the jurisdiction is based on the place in which the aforementioned requirements were last met.
meaning
At present, over 400 insurance offices and more than 12,000 municipalities throughout Germany perform tasks in accordance with the Social Code (SGB). In the area of responsibility of the Deutsche Rentenversicherung Bund (formerly BfA), around 30% of all pension applications were received by the insurance offices and municipalities in 2000. In some federal states (e.g. in Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria) the number of benefit applications received there is even around 90%.
Working groups
The municipal bodies that deal with social security tasks have come together to form working groups nationwide and in some federal states; this applies not only to the insurance offices as insurance authorities according to § 91 ff. SGB IV, but also to many smaller and larger municipalities.
The Federal Association of Insurance Offices (BAVers) has existed nationwide since 1991 , in which well over half of the German insurance offices actively participate.
