Pension notices under scrutiny: How to protect your claims!

Pension notices under scrutiny: How to protect your claims!

Christian Lindner, a pension consultant, has recently pointed out that almost 40% of pension notices are incorrect and that many pensioners therefore receive too little pension. This has led to an intensive discussion about the accuracy and control of pension decisions in Germany. But the German Pension Insurance (DRV) firmly contradicts these alarming statements and refers to the statistics of its objection procedures.

In 2023, around two million pension decisions were issued, but there were only around 154,000 objections to them, which corresponds to less than 1% of the decisions. Of these contradictions, only 0.6% actually had errors - this is about 1,000 cases. In 25.8% of cases, which corresponds to around 39,700 objections, notices were corrected based on documents subsequently submitted. According to the DRV, the control and quality assurance mechanisms are designed so that the risk of errors is low.

Causes of incorrect notifications

The DRV blames insufficient information from insured persons for many errors in pension notices. Insured persons should ensure that their insurance history is complete and that changes in personal life situations, such as births or periods of study, are reported promptly. These important times must be applied for individually to ensure that they are taken into account in the pension decision.

The DRV recommends checking your insurance history for possible gaps before receiving your pension notice. Insurance history is provided multiple times before applying for a pension so that each person has an opportunity to verify this information.

Legal remedies and support

Anyone who does not agree with their pension decision has the opportunity to lodge an objection or submit a request for review within one month of the announcement. Even if several years have passed, the pension notices can still be checked and additional payments can be made retroactively for up to four years.

The DRV offers affected insured persons support through nationwide information and advice centers. Volunteer insurance advisors are also available to provide competent, free advice. Pensioners are advised to check their notifications themselves, particularly by comparing employer reports and their insurance history.

The discussion about incorrect pension decisions is gaining momentum after some consultants spoke of up to 40% incorrect decisions. However, these calculations are largely based on individual experience and have been subjected to detailed examination by the DRV. In 2024, around 2 million pension decisions were issued, with only 0.8% of the 159,000 objections actually containing errors, which puts concerns about the massive number of incorrect decisions into perspective.

The German pension insurance pays around 26 million pensions every month and is continuously working to further minimize the risk of incorrect notifications. Automation and efficient control mechanisms make a significant contribution to maintaining trust in the system. If you have any questions or are unclear, insured persons should not hesitate to contact the advice centers mentioned.

For more information you can visit the reports Mercury and the German pension insurance read.