Are you entitled to the state subsidy for the Riester pension? We clarify which people are eligible for the allowance and who has to do without the Riester subsidy.
Who is eligible for the state subsidy
Everyone who pays compulsory contributions to the statutory pension scheme is directly eligible and entitled to the state subsidy. These include:
- Employees who are compulsorily insured in the statutory pension scheme
- Civil servants and employees in the public sector
- Professional and temporary soldiers
- Trainees
- Insured during the three-year child-rearing period
- Persons performing military or civilian service
- Self-employed persons subject to pension insurance (for example, midwives, caregivers, courier drivers, craftsmen)
- marginal employees (up to 400 euros) who have waived their right to social security exemption
- Recipients of early retirement benefits, provided that they were previously compulsorily insured
- Compulsorily insured persons in the old-age insurance scheme for farmers
- People who complete a voluntary ecological or social year
- recipients of wage replacement benefits, including eligibility for unemployment assistance, if the benefit due is suspended due to the imputation of income and assets
- disabled employees in sheltered workshops and similar institutions
- members of spiritual cooperatives
- Artists and publicists who are insured under the Artists' Social Insurance Act (Kunstlersozialversicherungsgesetz)
If your spouse is not subject to compulsory pension insurance, he or she can still receive state support in the form of allowances and tax benefits – but only if he or she takes out his or her own pension contract.
These persons are not eligible
Persons who do not receive government subsidies for the Riester pension include:
- self-employed persons who are not subject to pension insurance
- marginally employed persons who do not pay social security contributions
- Voluntarily insured pensioners
- Recipients of social welfare benefits
- Students
- Self-employed persons in professional pension schemes (for example, doctors, pharmacists, lawyers, architects)
- recipients of a full pension due to old age (65 years and older)
- pensioners due to occupational disability, reduction in earning capacity or incapacity for work
Seek expert advice on retirement provision
Even if you are not eligible for allowances and are therefore not entitled to the state subsidy, you should not forego protecting your old-age provision. Our insurance specialists will be happy to analyze your individual needs and advise you on the alternatives to the Riester pension.