Whether on paper as a pension notice or digitally as a pension information: For many people there is no good news here.
Photo: DPA/Felix Kästle
According to the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (BMAS), the digital pension overview (DRÜ) should enable everyone to find out about their individual entitlements from statutory, company and private pension schemes at any time – at a glance and digitally accessible via a portal.
With the push of a button, the central office for the digital pension overview (ZfDR) at the German Pension Insurance Association started the data exchange for the digital pension overview in December. From summer 2023, citizens will be able to access digital information about their individual entitlements from statutory, company and private pension schemes in the online portal of the digital pension overview. The first data exchange was accompanied by members of the steering committee at the ZfDR. The statutory, company and private pension schemes, Stiftung Warentest and the Federal Ministry of Labor and Finance are represented there.
During the current first operating phase, the digital pension overview will first be examined and evaluated by test users in several stages. You contribute to the further development of the portal and the content. From the summer of 2023, all citizens can access the portal and use the new offer.
So far, citizens have received separate information about their individual pension entitlements directly from the respective pension institutions. Differing content, methods of presentation and timing of receipt make it difficult to gain an overview of individual benefit entitlements at retirement age. With the digital pension overview, the individual pension entitlements are presented transparently in a structured and understandable overview. This makes it easier to deal with your own old-age provision and helps to identify any possible need for provision at an early stage thanks to an improved level of knowledge. The use of DRÜ is voluntary and free of charge. The overview lists information about entitlements from statutory pension insurance as well as company and private pension schemes.
In addition to the entitlements already achieved, the participating pension schemes also report those that can still be reached. The DRÜ shows whether the entitlements are guaranteed or forecast values. It will also be possible to read whether the benefit is paid as an annuity or as a one-time payment. “In this way, consumers receive an understandable overview and can more easily identify a possible need for action,” says the BMAS.
However, claims that members of professional pension schemes – such as doctors, pharmacists, architects, journalists or lawyers – have acquired or will acquire in the future are only included in the DRÜ if the institutions regularly provide status reports and there is an obligation to connect to the DRÜ or a connection is voluntary he follows. The same applies to the claims of civil servants.
»The legislator has given the concerns of data protection a high priority. The data obtained with the DRÜ is always deleted after each call,” assures the BMAS. In addition, the platform is a demanding project, and the system of old-age provision in Germany is complex, according to the ministry. This then also applies to the way in which the information or updates made available by the many providers and sponsors of statutory, company and private pension schemes are presented on a regular basis.
In mid-November, the president of the social association VdK, Verena Bentele, demanded that insured persons be informed not only digitally but also by post. »It is long overdue that people with pension insurance receive an individual overview of their statutory, company and private pension and their old-age provision. However, we are critical of the introduction of a purely digital pension overview, since people who do not have Internet access will then not have access to this information,” says Bentele. The legislature must therefore ensure that the pension overview is also accessible to people without the Internet – they would have to receive this information by post.
In addition, Bentele criticizes: “People with a small pension are of no use to a pension overview, regardless of whether it is digital or analogue. It is crucial for them that they receive a higher minimum wage of at least 13 euros so that they later receive a pension from which they can live.«