British Uni study and German Pension?

Does a British Uni study count towards your German Pension?
(On the just in case that I end up staying here that long) :GULP:

Does anyone know if the time we Ex-pats studied abroad can be made to count towards your German pension contribution?

I know that for the Germans it counts as the German state pays in money for every year they study! (Not sure if this applies to study abroad.)

cheers

Hmm I wouldn't have thought so.

Do you mean if are a student at a British Uni and spend a year in Germany?

Hmmm I spent a year in Germany and have never heard of this but I might be wrong.

It counts as contributed years towards your British pension

I got a UK pension forecast done last year and I was definitely not credited with NI for the years I spent at Uni. If you are studying for a year in UK as part of a German Uni course then you may be credited by the German scheme as it all counts as part of the 'Studium'.

I recently had a pension forecast both from the BfA and the British authorities. I'm fairly certain that my University time counted towards the BfA pension, (they wanted me to provide proof of the time at university).

If nobody can provide a definite answer, I can dig out the necessary correpondence next weekend and provide confirmation (or otherwise!)

Does anyone now what the score is regarding getting back your contributions paid into the German system (ie as a foreigner) and thus revoking your entitlement to a German pension?

there's a time limit on it, I think...three or five years...but not sure if EU members are still included in that. this has been discussed here before, I think...or was it on AWN?

Hi Luke,

I looked into claiming back my German pension contributions when I leave Germany. If you have paid into the system for longer than 5 years then you cant claim the money back, instead you will be entitled to a German pension even though you wont be living here anymore. Its a bit of a nuisance really as I'm sure it will be a pain in the arse to sort out at retirement age and I will have probably forgotten my german by then.

Good luck

Up to now I have avoided having anything to do with the German pension system but I'm beginning to think there may be some benefit in joining after all if I get credit for all my years in higher education in UK along with the credits I have already from being at home with the kids here in Germany there's about ten years in there before I have paid a thing! No wonder the german pension system is in a state of collapse.

Just to clear things up. I am English. I studied in England for 3 years (5 years if you include further and higher education), then I moved over to Germany! I have now worked for over 5 years in Germany so it does not look like I will be able to escape with my contributions!

On the other hand if I can make my Uni study count towards my contribution, it may just pay! After all my UK study has helped the German state! So why should I not get it counted!

If I can get this counted in, it means I have contributions worth of 8 years or 10 years (depends which they take).

In the UK you have to work a minimum of 17 years before you are entitled to receive a pension. If it is the same in Germany this would mean that I only have to work a further 9 or 7 years, before I know that my arse is safe!

I know that Germans are entitle to count their Uni studies towards their pensions! Probably a reason that few finish their studies in under 5 years!

***********

On a side note in the UK if you have contributions worth 20 years the final sum you receive is 20/80 of the final wage in the last three years (maybe wrong on this one). Does anyone know how it works here?

Can't help but if you do find out the answer please post it as I would also like to know this.

Education and higher education after the age of 16 definitely counts at the moment, although I believe they're thinking about changing that. They have a peculiar points system that sums up how much you get, but I can't remember how it works.

I'll try and remember to dig out my pension forecast at the weekend and see what it says.

RMA

If you are right it may be worth a number of us EX-pats writing to our respective authorities and making sure it is counted in right now and not forgotten about!

RMA,

How did you get your german pension forecast done ? Did you simply write and ask for one or what ?

Yes, just write the BfA, no special forms required or anything, they'll come back chasing you for anything they really want, such as in my case proof of attendance at University.

On their forms they want proof of everything, which is a bit of a joke for a Brit - or do you still have pay-slips from companies you worked for in the '60's and '70's (or '90s, for that matter). I just provided the list of companies I'd worked for and the associated addresses and they accepted that without any questions.

If you're a long way from retiremnet, their estimate of your pension is obviously a joke, however, it may well still be worth doing, if only to make certain there are no mistakes in your qualifying years.

By the way, not too surprisingly the procedure is pretty slow, I think it took a couple of months in my case.

My main reason would be to see if non-qualifying years in UK would actually count as qualifying years here. I have got some very old payslips but how did you prove when you attended University? I think all I have to show for that is a couple of certificates which only indicate when the courses finished.

As you say, the certificates don't actually say how long you spent doing the course, so I just wrote to the University telling them when I was there and what courses I had taken, date of birth, address at the time, etc. and I got an official letter back within a couple of weeks. Nice thought that - spend 5 or 6 years doing your degree because you have to keep resitting things and it actually improves your pension!

By the way, they aren't interested in whether or not you graduated - so even if you only did a couple of years and then broke off, those years still count.

As they say, every little helps!