500,000 pensioners have to submit important proof – without it there is a risk of pensions being stopped
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Around half a million pensioners from Germany currently have to submit proof of life in order to continue receiving their pension. If this is not submitted on time, the pension will be discontinued.
Berlin – Every month, the German pension insurance transfers around 26 million pensions to those entitled at home and abroad. In order for payments to be made correctly, it relies on up-to-date information such as the pensioner’s home address, bank details or living status. While this data is usually transmitted automatically in Germany, many pensioners are currently receiving an important letter from the German pension insurance that they should definitely not ignore. If the required proof of life is not submitted on time, the Pension Service will stop paying the pension on November 30th.
500,000 pensioners have to submit proof of life – otherwise their pensions will be stopped
When sending the annual pension adjustment notification, the Pension Service requests proof of life from pension recipients whose pensions are transferred abroad. The letters are sent between mid-June and the end of July. The completed proof of life must be received by the Pension Service by August 16th. But who is actually affected by the regulation?
“Contrary to reports on social media, pensioners in Germany generally do not have to provide proof of life! This excludes pensioners who live in Germany but have their bank account abroad,” it says on the official website of the German Pension Insurance.
The situation is different for pensioners living abroad. In principle, you must submit a so-called proof of life once a year. However, this is not necessary for everyone: of the around 1.7 million pensions that the German pension insurance transfers abroad, in around 1.2 million cases proof of life is already provided automatically through a data exchange between the responsible authorities. This applies to Australia, Italy, Spain and Austria, among others.
What happens if the certificate of life is not submitted?
In concrete terms, this means: In countries where automatic data exchange is not possible, pensioners must provide proof of their life status themselves once a year. This year, the relevant documents will be sent by post between June and July together with the pension adjustment notification – and are therefore currently arriving in the mailboxes of those affected.
If the life certificate is lost, that’s not a problem, because it can be downloaded at any time from the Deutsche Post AG pension service download center. There are also various ways to provide proof of life. This can be done both in paper form and digitally. For the digital version, a personal QR code is used in combination with the PostIdent app.
Anyone who misses the submission deadline does not have to expect pension payments to stop immediately. First, the Pension Service sends a reminder letter at the beginning of September. However, pensioners should provide proof by then at the latest. Anyone who does not submit proof of life on time must expect that pension payments will be stopped. “The pension can only be paid again once proof of life has been provided,” it says. The deadline is November 30th.