FAQ Pensions
- I draw a pension for damage to health for a lung disorder. In recent times my health has been deteriorating to an ever increasing extent. I am constantly reminded of the time of per-secution, the loss of my parents and my brother. I have been undergoing psychiatric treat-ment for 2 years. What can I do? Do I have claim for the reimbursement of the costs for the psychiatrist and the medication which I need due to my depressive state?
- I have lodged an application for deterioration to health with the responsible compensation authorities. The examining medical practitioner in Israel has clearly determined obvious deterioration in my state of health and has assumed the diminution in the ability to earn a livelihood to be 60 to 65 %. The German appraiser, who does not even know me or even examined me, has assessed the diminution in the ability to earn a livelihood due to persecu-tion to be only 40 %. How can this be?
- How can different assessments by German appraisers be made if this is the case?
- I was born on the 15th November 1927 and draw a pension as a result of ill health (minimum pension) with a diminution in the ability to earn a livelihood of 30% which has been recog-nised as being due to the persecution I suffered and which, in turn, was recognised by the compensation authorities in the 1960s. Accordingly, I lodged an application as a result of deterioration in health last year. The German appraiser estimated the diminution in the abil-ity to earn a living caused by persecution to be 40 % as from the year 1998 onwards. Never-theless my application based on my deterioration in health has now been rejected. Why?
- In the nineteen fifties I made claims for compensation due to damage to my hearing in respect of my left ear valid because I was beaten by a concentration camp warder. At that time I did not get a pension but only health treatment for an ear complaint with diminution in the ability to earn a liveli-hood due to persecution of 20%. Now quite recently I obtained a hearing aid for my left ear.In the meantime my hearing with my left ear has also become worse.
Over and above this I now also hear badly with my right ear which is a great handicap to me. What can I do? - I draw a pension for ill health according to the Federal German Indemnification Act and in-deed a so-called hundred percent rate pension. Because I was earning well when the first decision was made, I declared my agreement to a minimum hundred rate pension at that time. However, at the age of 58 I was without work and from that time onwards only received unemployment support benefits.
At the age of 63 I suffered a stroke. Since that time I have been unable to work and have received a small pension from the Israeli national insurance.
However, this and the BEG pension are only just enough to live on. Can I claim a higher pension in accordance with the Federal German Indemnification Act? - My father received a compensation pension because he suffered serious psychological damage as a result of national socialistic persecution. He drew a hundred percent pension on the basis a diminution in the ability to earn a livelihood of 30 % caused by persecution. The total diminution in the ability to earn a livelihood was considered to be 40 % when the first decision was made.
Early in January my father lodged an application due to deterioration in health. Unfortu-nately, he died on 2nd February.
Since the state of my father\'s health deteriorated considerably both psychologically and physically cardiac disorder, prostate, thigh joint, knee operation, psychiatric treatment) after the death of my mother early in the nineteen nineties (to my mind he had a claim for a higher pension quite some time ago. Can I take this procedure further? - As Jewish persecuted person I have drawn a pension for ill health since the middle of the nineteen seventies following a determined diminution on the ability to earn a livelihood due to persecution of 25 %. A likewise persecuted neighbour has drawn my attention to the pos-sibility of lodging an application for deterioration in health which, in her case lead to an in-crease in pension. As a result I was surprised to be informed that such an application for an increase in pension due to deterioration in health was not possible in my case. Can this be right?
- I live in New York. My husband died just about 3 months ago. He suffered badly both men-tally and physically during the national socialism era and after the war until his death. As a result of the damage to his health and indeed for a lung disorder, he received a pension from the Landesamt für Finanzen - AfW which in the last instance was due to persecution in accordance with an appropriate diminution in the ability to earn a livelihood of 40%.
Have I a claim for a survivor pension and what must I do? - My first husband died in a concentration camp. After the war I married again. Up to the time of my second marriage I drew a widow\'s pension.
Now 2 years ago my second husband died and unfortunately he left only debts and a small widow pension. Is it possible for me to get a widow pension rated according to my first husband. He was a lawyer and earned well?
1. I draw a pension for damage to health for a lung disorder. In recent times my health has been deteriorating to an ever increasing extent. I am constantly reminded of the time of per-secution, the loss of my parents and my brother. I have been undergoing psychiatric treat-ment for 2 years. What can I do? Do I have claim for the reimbursement of the costs for the psychiatrist and the medication which I need due to my depressive state?
First of all you can make a so-called retrospective psychiatric damage to health claim valid under a application for compensation due to deterioration in health. Should you be undergoing treatment for your depressive state, anxiety or nightmares, that can be evidenced by a medical certificate, the compensation authorities will arrange for a psychiatric examination in so far as recognition of a retrospective psychiatric damage to health claim cannot be considered for legal reasons. In so far as any given psychiatric disorders are confirmed by an appraiser commissioned to carry out the medical examination and the advising appraiser of the compensation authorities in Germany both agree that this is associated with the persecution suffered under the national socialists, the com-pensation authorities will recognise this retrospective psychological damage to health and increase the pension to the appropriate extent subject to the necessary other documents being submitted and the other conditions being fulfilled.
However, no claim is given for health treatment for such retrospective damage to health unlike the lung disorder recognised in the course of the initial proceedings. As a consequence you must pay the costs for psychiatric treatment as well as the medication yourself.
2. I have lodged an application for deterioration to health with the responsible compensation authorities. The examining medical practitioner in Israel has clearly determined obvious deterioration in my state of health and has assumed the diminution in the ability to earn a livelihood to be 60 to 65 %. The German appraiser, who does not even know me or even examined me, has assessed the diminution in the ability to earn a livelihood due to persecu-tion to be only 40 %. How can this be?
The assessment of damage to health as condition for granting a pension for ill health in accordance with the Federal German Indemnification Act must be made for all applicants on the same basis as in the case of the examination and determination of the further conditions for claims for legal rea-sons. This is independent of your present place of residence and the medical assessment stipula-tions applied in your country. Applied in this case, since it is a matter of German Law, are also the general valid social medical assessment directives applicable for assessment in Germany. In many cases and more especially in the case of assessment of psychological disorders there is but little or no deviations in the different assessment scales. From experience it can be said that there are frequently considerable differences between the German social medicine assessment directives and those directives valid in the USA, Israel and South America, particularly in the case of psycho-logical disorders. As a consequence the assessment made by an assessor aware of the German social medicine assessment criteria is generally given priority over the assessment of the examin-ing appraiser in the homeland country of the applicant. Accordingly, the task of the examining ap-praiser is to determine the complaint and the outcome of the persecution and to specify these in detail in his appraisal. This appraisal together with the treatment documents then form the basis for the final assessment and evaluation by the advising German assessor who studies the files and advises the compensation authorities.
3. How can different assessments by German appraisers be made if this is the case?
In the case of organic disorders for which x-ray photographs are available and diagnostic methods can be applied using electronics and chemicals and by referring to biological findings, the appraiser has less freedom when making his assessment. In this case deviations in the assessment only occur in really borderline cases and only to a minimum extent in the majority of cases.
However, this is different in the case of psychic disorders. In such cases an appraiser is frequently unable to refer to clearly objective documents. Occasionally this leads to the appraiser weighting the details provided by the patient and how the patient feels more subjectively than objective documents (which are subject to doubt from the legal point of view) as well as stressing events in the life of the person, so called life events (death of relatives, retirement, divorce, etc.), which with-out any doubt can make matters worse. Moreover, in medical science these events are also recog-nised as being the cause of deterioration to some extent should no objective and concrete evi-dence be available. However, this is legally not permissible.
To be considered in this case is that many a German medical appraiser lacks the experience and knowledge to be able to either provide a non-contestable assessment or take medical aspects and legal stipulations into consideration.
4. I was born on the 15th November 1927 and draw a pension as a result of ill health (minimum pension) with a diminution in the ability to earn a livelihood of 30% which has been recog-nised as being due to the persecution I suffered and which, in turn, was recognised by the compensation authorities in the 1960s. Accordingly, I lodged an application as a result of deterioration in health last year. The German appraiser estimated the diminution in the abil-ity to earn a living caused by persecution to be 40 % as from the year 1998 onwards. Never-theless my application based on my deterioration in health has now been rejected. Why?
As increase in pension in your case has come up against § 35, Section 2 Federal German Indemni-fication Act [BEG]. According to this a pension granted for ill health ends when the recipient be-comes 68-years old except in the case of linear adjustments to pension and can only be redeter-mined (increased or reduced), when there is a deviation of at least 30% when any change occurs from the determined date of pension and any given increase in the diminution in the ability to earn a livelihood leads to a new pension level being reached. As a result of this it is firstly ensured in the case of the so-called one hundred rate pension that the regular increases given with social insur-ance pensions do not lead to a corresponding reductions in pensions for ill health granted by the Federal German Indemnification Act [BEG] and secondly, this also does not lead to an appropriate increase in pension for the determined deterioration in the state of health due to persecution.
In your case this means that any increase in pension is excluded. In the year 1998 when you had already ended your 68th year, in life the minimum pension according to the diminution in the ability to earn a livelihood of 30% was DM 739 and the pension benefit in accordance with a diminution in the ability to earn a livelihood of 40 % was DM 921. This means to say that the necessary 30% difference was not given.
Decisive in such cases is also whether there has been a change in the personal and economic situation (here in this case qualifying for the next highest pension rate due to the increase of the diminution in the ability to earn a livelihood as a result of persecution) only occurred either after or still before ending your 68th year of life. On the other hand the point in time when such an applica-tion is made has no bearing on this matter! This means to say that an appropriate application for reviewing your pension can be lodged years after you reach the age of 68. Nevertheless, even in such a case, in accordance with § 35 Section 2, it solely depends on when any change in your personal and economic situation occurs!
As a consequence should you be of the opinion that either a still higher diminution in the ability to earn a livelihood due to persecution will lead you to qualifying for the one but next pension rate (in your case this would be 50%), or the deterioration already occurred before you became full 68 years old or the deterioration occurred after you reached this age and you have medical documents and papers that substantiate this which have not been submitted by you up to now you can take legal action against the decision made at that time and submit such documents and papers to sup-port your claim. The court will then re-examine your case and if necessary commission a overriding court appraisal.
5. In the nineteen fifties I made claims for compensation due to damage to my hearing in respect of my left ear valid because I was beaten by a concentration camp warder. At that time I did not get a pension but only health treatment for an ear complaint with diminution in the ability to earn a liveli-hood due to persecution of 20%. Now quite recently I obtained a hearing aid for my left ear.In the meantime my hearing with my left ear has also become worse. Over and above this I now also hear badly with my right ear which is a great handicap to me. What can I do?
You should make application for redetermination of your pension without fail (by lodging application for compensation due to deterioration in health). Up to now granting a regular pension has failed because you had not qualified for the first pension stage for medical reasons, namely, with a given diminution in ability to earn a livelihood of at least 25%. In so far as you now qualify to this extent you may well be granted a regular pension and possibly in retrospect since the occurrence of this deterioration.
When you make your application the compensation authorities will arrange for you to be examined by a hearing specialist and an audiogram will be made.
There are realistic chances that the damage to your hearing with your the right ear, which was not caused by persecution, could be considered to be the result of the malfunction of your left ear and the deterioration in hearing given in the case of your left ear will result in an overall higher diminu-tion in the ability to earn a livelihood. The reason for this is because in the case of assessment of the diminution in the ability to earn a livelihood must be given reasonable consideration in accor-dance with the law and an overall picture must be obtained (as far as so-called pairs of organs are concerned) because your ability to hear can no longer be compensated by a second healthy ear due to the failure of this second organ (for example, through illness as a result of old age).
6. I draw a pension for ill health according to the Federal German Indemnification Act and in-deed a so-called hundred percent rate pension. Because I was earning well when the first decision was made, I declared my agreement to a minimum hundred rate pension at that time. However, at the age of 58 I was without work and from that time onwards only received unemployment support benefits.
At the age of 63 I suffered a stroke. Since that time I have been unable to work and have received a small pension from the Israeli national insurance.
However, this and the BEG pension are only just enough to live on. Can I claim a higher pension in accordance with the Federal German Indemnification Act?
This calls for an extensive study of the given circumstances.
You must be able to evidence that you only agreed to the so-called minimum hundred percent ear-lier because your accountable income from working was very high at that time and, as a conse-quence, you could not expect to get a higher pension than the minimum hundred percent pension. However, you can now make application for your pension to be redetermined because of the change in your economic and personal situation.
The accountability of income from own employment is no longer applicable when the general dimi-nution in the ability to earn a livelihood of 50% at least but after becoming 45 years old (in the case of women) or 65 years old (for men).
However, other income amongst other things also pensions from unreasonable employment in so far as this exceeds specific non-taxable amounts continues to be accountable.
As a consequence an exact study of your economic situation is called for in your case. Over and above this to be also studied is the extent of the general diminution in the ability to earn a livelihood independent of the examination of possible deterioration due to suffering persecution, both of which can be significant in respect of the non-accountable income from working in the case of general diminution in the ability to earn a livelihood of 50% and granting any increase to the hundred percent rate upon reaching a general diminution in the ability to earn to livelihood of 80%.
7. My father received a compensation pension because he suffered serious psychological damage as a result of national socialistic persecution. He drew a hundred percent pension on the basis a diminution in the ability to earn a livelihood of 30 % caused by persecution. The total diminution in the ability to earn a livelihood was considered to be 40 % when the first decision was made.
Early in January my father lodged an application due to deterioration in health. Unfortu-nately, he died on 2nd February.
Since the state of my father\'s health deteriorated considerably both psychologically and physically cardiac disorder, prostate, thigh joint, knee operation, psychiatric treatment) after the death of my mother early in the nineteen nineties (to my mind he had a claim for a higher pension quite some time ago. Can I take this procedure further?
You can follow up application for deterioration in health because you as child (likewise grandchil-dren, children, parents but not nephews and nieces) come under the privileged heirs in the sense of § 39 Paragraph 2 Federal German Indemnification Act [BEG]. However, since your father was not examined by a psychiatrist before his death (and, should be this necessary, also by an inter-nist), any determination as to whether the deterioration in the psychic disorder had already set in your fathers case of your father and/or the general diminution in the ability to earn a livelihood of 80 % was given can likewise lead to an increase in pension in the case of one hundred percent pen-sion, this means that an assessment can be made based on given documents providing details.
These medical documents can be obtained from the compensation authorities in Israel through the Medical Board.
On the other hand, in other countries the applicant himself must endeavour to get the medical documents released by the medical practitioners providing treatment or make this possible for the compensation authorities to obtain these documents through the responsible German General Consulate by making an appropriate declaration to release doctors from their commitment to keep secrecy.
In this case particular significance is attached to getting the original documents on treatment given because these have considerably more weight than retrospective general medical certificates pro-vided by medical practitioners treating patients. Should after evaluation of the documents any dete-rioration in the recognised complaint or a diminution in the ability to earn a living of 80% become apparent, this could lead to the pension being redetermined in retrospect provided that the other conditions are fulfilled.
In this case of payment of a given subsequent amount is indicated as a result, this calls for formal evidence of heredity. In so far as this is concerned an application can be made for a subject re-stricted heredity certificate to the Saarburg Local Court, 54439 Saarburg, Germany, instead of submitting a heredity evidence certificate issued in your country of residence. This court as Probate Court as well as the head office of the Office for Restitution in Saarburg are responsible for deter-mining such inheritance rights.
8. As Jewish persecuted person I have drawn a pension for ill health since the middle of the nineteen seventies following a determined diminution on the ability to earn a livelihood due to persecution of 25 %. A likewise persecuted neighbour has drawn my attention to the pos-sibility of lodging an application for deterioration in health which, in her case lead to an in-crease in pension. As a result I was surprised to be informed that such an application for an increase in pension due to deterioration in health was not possible in my case. Can this be right?
As a matter of principle the amount of a pension granted for ill health depends on the individual, personal and economic situation of the applicant. As a consequence an application can be made to have the pension reviewed when the situation changes, which is decisive in this case, (and this also includes amongst other things the extent of the damage to health due to persecution).
However, there are two important exceptions in this case:
1) As a general rule you cannot lodge an application for compensation due to deterioration in health should you have made an out of court settlement in the first instance with a view to the fu-ture (but here again there is an exception).
2) Feasible as second possibility is that you draw a pension in accordance with § 31 Section 2 Federal German Indemnification Act [BEG]. According to this regulation a pension for ill health will be paid even without recognition of a specific disorder being the result of persecution should the persecuted person have been in a concentration camp for at least one year and it was established that said person was ill when examined medically at that time but in all probability this did not ex-clude being caused by persecution and resulted in the ability to earn a livelihood of at least 25 %.
The difference to a "normal" pension granted as a result of ill health is not the firmly established suffering as a result of persecution for such a pension but only the general diminution in the ability to earn a living of at least 25% given at the time of the medical examination and the none contest-able assumption of causality associated with this by way of legislation. Accordingly this "assumed pension" in accordance with § 31 Section 2 Federal German Indemnification Act [BEG] does not correspondingly depend on the given specific diminution in the ability to earn a living as a result of persecution and, moreover, any later change to the degree of diminution in the ability to earn a livelihood also has no influence on the amount of pension granted.
To be also considered is that this assumed pension was introduced by the law makers in retrospect with the final law in the year 1965 to overcome the problem of providing evidence by those victims who were imprisoned in a concentration camp for longer than one year since it would not be possi-ble to clarify the question as to whether and to what extent the given disorder was due to persecu-tion without any shadow of doubt. In accordance with the stipulations for a "normal" BEG pension due to ill health such applications would have to be rejected should it not be possible to provide evidence that such abnormal disorders were originally due to persecution with a total diminution in the ability to earn a livelihood of at least 25%.
9. I live in New York. My husband died just about 3 months ago. He suffered badly both men-tally and physically during the national socialism era and after the war until his death. As a result of the damage to his health and indeed for a lung disorder, he received a pension from the Landesamt für Finanzen - AfW which in the last instance was due to persecution in accordance with an appropriate diminution in the ability to earn a livelihood of 40%.
Have I a claim for a survivor pension and what must I do?
Unlike in the case of drawing a social insurance pension, the granting of a survivor pension after the recipient of a BEG pension has died is subject to special conditions. The survivor pension in accordance with § 41 Federal German Indemnification Act [BEG] is namely part of the compensa-tion for physical injury or damage to health and apart from fulfilling the general conditions for mak-ing a claim presupposes that the death occurred as a result of damage caused by persecution was physical and as a result continued in ill health.
As a consequence you should lodge an application for a survivor pension under all circumstances if you are of the opinion that it was associated with the suffering (which was due to illness) and led to his death and this was connected with the persecution under the national socialists.
As a general rule the application must be lodged immediately after the death of the persecuted person. However, in accordance with the administration practise of the Office for Restitution in Saarburg it will suffice when the application is lodged within three months (in the case of place of residence abroad in Europe) or six months (in the case of place of residence outside Europe). These time frames commence upon the death of the persecuted person. A longer period can be applicable in exceptional cases. This means to say that the application can still be lodged within a period of one year should the survivor himself have made timely application for compensation at that time in accordance with the Federal German Indemnification Act [BEG]. Under some circum-stances the date for lodging an application can also be extended should this deadline not be kept for reasons for which no one is to be blamed.
In any case the application should be lodged as quickly as possible and indeed in writing. Should you have failed to keep this application date you should state the reasons for this and substantiate same when lodging the application. This will enable the compensation authorities can check whether the conditions have been fulfilled for reopening the procedure.
The compensation authorities will then get in touch with you and inform you as to what they still require to process the application.
From the medical point of view the granting a survivor pension presupposes that the death of your husband can be traced back to persecution in all probability.
In this case the compensation authorities are in no way bound by the earlier assessment of the damage to the health of your husband. The claim for a survivor pension is indeed part of the com-pensation for physical damage or ill health but also is a matter of claim under own rights so that all the conditions for the claim have to be examined again. In this case deviations from the earlier assessment more especially in the specialist areas of medicine is theoretically possible without any doubt. Even if your husband did not die as a result of a recognised lung complaint due to persecu-tion but for example due to a heart disorder it may well be possible that your claim will be approved although this complaint is an every day occurrence but the cause of his death can be traced back to national socialistic persecution.
Furthermore, a claim for survivor pension according to §§ 41 Federal German Indemnification Act [BEG] can only be considered if you or your deceased husband fulfil the general conditions for entitlement under § 4 or § 150 Federal German Indemnification Act [BEG] (most important re-quirements in this case are having resided at a specific period in Germany, in a DP camp from the 1st January 1947 in the Federal Republic of Germany or the persecutee came from the German language and culture group from banished territories).
Finally, the effectiveness of the conclusion of marriage has to be studied. This applies more especially to marriages concluded by ritual in specific countries in Middle East Europe.
10. My first husband died in a concentration camp. After the war I married again. Up to the time of my second marriage I drew a widow\'s pension.
Now 2 years ago my second husband died and unfortunately he left only debts and a small widow pension. Is it possible for me to get a widow pension rated according to my first husband. He was a lawyer and earned well?
This is possible. In accordance with § 23 Federal German Indemnification Act [BEG] widow pen-sions can be reinstated again under certain conditions which we are unable to give here in detail. In this case this does not call for any formal application by way of an exception; however, it is understandable that the compensation authorities are only able to grant a pension when they are aware of all the facts. As a consequence you should apply in a formless way to the responsible compensation authorities. Even if the death of your second husband occurred a long time ago this has no bearing on the matter because in this case there are no valid deadlines.
However, in the case of reinstigation of the survivor pension under a social insurance scheme for your second husband this must be taken into full account.
By the way, under certain circumstances the widow pension can be reinstigated even after sev-eral marriages.