Hardship fund: Who benefits and how to apply - financial expert explains

Hardship fund: Who benefits and how to apply - financial expert explains

According to a report by www.morgenpost.de, there is currently the possibility for certain pensioners to receive an extra payment through the hardship fund. This particularly affects older people who come from the GDR. However, requesting this payment must be done quickly as the deadline is the end of January.

The hardship fund was introduced by the traffic light coalition at the beginning of last year to compensate for outstanding pension claims from the East-West pension transition. This concerns, for example, pension payments for divorced women in the GDR or additional pensions for various professional groups. A sum of half a billion euros is available.

Certain professional and personal groups from the East-West pension transition, late repatriates and Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union are eligible. Depending on the federal state, those entitled can receive a payment of between 2,500 and 5,000 euros.

These payments must be applied for independently from the “Hardship Fund Foundation” and the deadline for the application is January 31, 2024. The original deadline was September 30 of last year, but the deadline was extended because relatively few people had applied by then.

The introduction of the hardship fund and the extension of the application deadline may result in more people finding out about the possibility of extra payment and applying for it. This can help to relieve the financial burden on certain pensioners and thus also have an impact on consumption and the economy. This also shows a measure by the government to support pensioners in special financial situations.