(2023) Am I directly or indirectly eligible for funding?

"Directly eligible" are employees who are subject to compulsory contributions in the statutory pension scheme and are therefore affected by the reduction in the pension level. The same applies to civil servants, judges, and career soldiers as well as employees with a similar pension scheme. Since 2008, this also includes disability pensioners and pension recipients.

If both spouses belong to the eligible group, each of them is entitled to the pension bonus separately. The condition is that each has taken out a pension contract and makes contributions. To receive the maximum bonus, each spouse must pay the required minimum contribution of 4 percent of the previous year's income.

However, if only one spouse belongs to the eligible group, the non-eligible spouse (e.g. housewife, self-employed) has a derived bonus entitlement and is therefore "indirectly eligible". The indirect bonus eligibility takes into account that the other spouse is also affected by the reduction in the pension level, as they will later receive lower survivor's benefits. The condition for indirect bonus eligibility is that both spouses have each taken out a Riester contract in their name and the indirectly eligible spouse pays at least 60 Euro per contribution year into their contract.