Pension insurance worries people after reports of miscalculations
In recent weeks, many reports about miscalculations of pensions have worried many insurants. Although many pension awards have been corrected in the last year, questions remain whether some pensionists receive less money than they should.
The main reason for these problems included incorrect or incomplete counseling performed by the pension insurers; yet this does not appear to be a general problem. Unlike commercial insurance companies, the Federal Pension Fund is not profit-oriented. They have the duty to find the best possible pension variant for the insurant. Although mistakes have been made, these are usually caused by human and technical error and are the exception. Nevertheless, it is important to check the pension for miscalculations.
The calculations are being done by computers, but mistakes can happen when humans enter the required data and that can lead to incorrect payouts in the end. Each insurant has the right to have his pension award reviewed by the insurance. Some things can be verified by the insurant such as the correct dates of education periods, pregnancies, child-raising or illnesses. Documentation of periods of unemployment is also very important. All data should be properly checked and corrected if necessary. Also look out for transposed digits.
Insurants who would rather have independent counsel can go to one of the social service associations to have his pension checked for errors. Some of those services require a membership that usually includes useful benefits such as legal counseling. Any claims against the pension insurance can be made retroactively for up to four years. Therefore, the deadline of December 31st should be remembered. If it should turn out that the pension has been too high, there is protection against reductions. But there are cases of disability pensions where the limits for earning extra money have been exceeded. In this case, it is possible that the insurant has to refund those amounts.
The Federal Pension Fund announced that quality assurance has been improved to ensure that all future pension awards are correct. Every individual should receive a pension with the most favorable terms.