Injury Pension (Verletztenrente)

Requirements

Insured persons are entitled to an injury pension if their earning capacity is reduced by at least 20 percent beyond the 26th week after the insured event as a result of that event (§ 56 para. 1 sentence 1 SGB VII). If the reduction in earning capacity (MdE) from a single insured event does not reach this level, the entitlement nevertheless exists where several insured events, each with an MdE of at least 10 percent, together reach 20 percent (so-called supporting pension, § 56 para. 1 sentences 2 and 3 SGB VII). The pension begins on the day after injury benefit ends or, if no injury benefit was paid, on the day after the insured event (§ 72 SGB VII). Within the first three years it may be set as a provisional compensation until the consequences of the accident can be conclusively assessed (§ 62 SGB VII).

Amount and assessment

Where earning capacity is lost entirely, a full pension of two thirds of the annual earnings (Jahresarbeitsverdienst, JAV) is paid; for a partial reduction the partial pension amounts to the share of the full pension corresponding to the degree of MdE (§ 56 para. 3 SGB VII). The JAV is the total of pay and earned income in the twelve months before the insured event (§ 82 SGB VII), bounded by the minimum JAV of 60 percent of the reference figure and the maximum JAV, which the carrier’s statutes set at no less than twice the reference figure (§ 85 SGB VII). Severely injured persons with an MdE of at least 50 percent who are not gainfully employed and receive no other pension receive a supplement of 10 percent (§ 57 SGB VII). The pension is paid monthly alongside earned income and other pensions, is exempt from income tax and is adjusted annually; where the MdE is below 40 percent it may on application be replaced by a lump-sum settlement (§§ 75, 76 SGB VII).

Country comparison

The Austrian Versehrtenrente is practically identical in structure: it requires an MdE of at least 20 percent for more than three months and amounts, as a full pension, to 66 2/3 percent of the assessment basis. The Swiss UVG disability pension, by contrast, already starts at 10 percent disability, amounts to 80 percent of insured earnings and is assessed by a concrete comparison of incomes rather than by abstract MdE experience values.