Refund of Pension Contributions - Germany

chrisrsmith

I worked in Germany for approx 9 months and paid taxes and pension contributions through my then employer.

Am i entitled to reclaim the pension contributions that I made (not the company contributions) as I will not be retiring there?

I am now back in the UK.

Savvy_Sue

If this was a German employer, then you'd have to ask them / what the rules are in Germany.

I know you can't get pension contributions repaid in the UK, but you can (normally) transfer them to a difference provider.

So you might be able to get the German payments moved to a UK pension.

Sanne

I assume you are referring to the statutory state pension system?

In which case this may apply - http://www.deutsche-rentenversicherung.de/Allgemein/de/Inhalt/Allgemeines/FAQ/International/erstattung_deutsche_versicherungsbeitraege/00_faq_liste_erstattung_deutsche_versicherungsbeitraege.html

It's basically saying that if you've paid in for under two years you've got to wait 24 months before you can claim your payments back.

However, this example is for a non-EU national so I'd strongly advise to contact the Rentenversicherung to ask about regulations and procedures. They've got an English site here http://www.deutsche-rentenversicherung.de/Allgemein/en/Navigation/englisch_index_node.html as well.