With a hardship fund, the traffic light coalition wants to help East Germans who suffered disadvantages when GDR pensions were transferred to the German pension system. Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union and late resettlers should also benefit from the one-time payment.
According to the federal government, around 180,000 to 190,000 needy pensioners can expect help of at least 2,500 euros from a new hardship fund. These include East Germans with claims from GDR times as well as Jewish quota refugees and late resettlers on the poverty line.
The federal cabinet launched the foundation intended for the fund today. Last week, the Budget Committee in the Bundestag made 500 million euros available for this purpose. The federal states should have the opportunity to participate financially in the fund until March 31, 2023. If this happens, applicants in the participating countries can hope for 5,000 instead of 2,500 euros.
The background is above all a decades-long dispute over certain pension entitlements from the GDR era, which were not transferred to the federal German system in 1991. Affected are, for example, supplementary pensions for former employees of the Reichsbahn or Post as well as entitlements of women who were divorced in GDR times.
The Federal Ministry of Social Affairs explained the recipients of the payments from the fund: “The foundation is aimed at people who have completed a significant part of their working history in the former GDR or in the foreign region of origin and whose pensions from the statutory pension insurance system are close to the basic security in old age and in the case of reduced earning capacity.” They could get the one-time payment “to mitigate their perceived hardship and for self-determined use”.
The establishment of the foundation should be completed in early 2023. Then the application process can begin, the ministry said. The applications should be submitted to the German pension insurance Knappschaft-Bahn-See. “We still have to wait and see” when the money will be paid out.