This is how your own income is counted
When calculating the widow’s pension, it is important to note that the pension insurance also counts your own income, i.e. your pension, against the survivor’s pension. Although there are allowances, the calculation is not that easy. Because it can happen that your survivor’s pension is reduced. The calculation takes place in three steps:
1st step: The pension insurance first determines your net income. To do this, it uses a flat-rate procedure for certain types of income: almost 40 percent is deducted from the gross income from work. Almost 14 percent are deducted as a lump sum if a surviving dependent receives their own pension.
2nd step: Once the net income has been calculated, the allowance is deducted from it. This is linked to the current pension value. So if the pension increases, the exempt amount also increases. In the old federal states, the allowance is currently 903 euros and 884 euros in the new federal states. In addition, the allowance increases for each child who is entitled to an orphan’s pension. In the old federal states, this is 191 euros per capita and 187 euros in the new federal states (as of March 2022).
3rd step: Now 40 percent of the remaining amount will be offset against the widow’s pension. Or to put it another way: These 40 percent are deducted from the widow’s pension.
Example: In Baden-Württemberg, a widower has his own net income of 2,000 euros. He also has one child who is still in college. Because of the child, his allowance increases from EUR 903 by EUR 382 to a total of EUR 1,094. If you subtract the tax-free allowance from your net income, the net income exceeds the tax-free allowance by EUR 906. Of this, 40 percent is 362.40 euros. Therefore, the pension insurance deducts this amount from the survivor’s pension (as of March 2022).