From BZ/dpa
Many things are becoming more expensive. It’s good if the company pension increases as well. But this does not always have to happen automatically. What you should know about this.
Prices are rising, for example for groceries – and with them the cost of living. If you get a company pension, the question arises for many: Does the employer actually have to adjust it to inflation?
“Yes,” says Alexander Schipp, specialist lawyer for labor law. Namely according to paragraph 16 of the company pension law. “This requires employers to check the ongoing benefits of company pensions every three years and then adjust them to the loss of purchasing power that has occurred,” says Schipp.
Instead, the employer can increase the company pension by a flat rate of one percent annually. However, this option only exists if the pension commitment was made after 1998.
And there are other exceptions: namely when the company pensions are not paid as a so-called direct commitment by the company itself or via a support fund.
If the company pension scheme is taken over by a pension fund or a direct insurance company, there is no obligation to check whether the current benefits have been adjusted.
This only applies if the surplus shares that regularly arise are used exclusively to improve the pension benefits. In the case of deferred compensation, special provisions must be observed.
Prompt employers to adjust
The following also applies: If economic reasons speak against the adjustment, companies can also suspend it completely if the company pension is paid as a direct commitment or via a provident fund.
If there is no adjustment, Schipp advises recipients of company pensions to ask the employer in writing to make an adjustment. The latter must then explain why this is not the case and explain the economic reasons for this.
If there are doubts about the justification, company pensioners can file an adjustment suit with the labor court, according to Schipp. “The employer then has to prove why his economic development is so bad that he cannot afford this pension adjustment.”