Pensioners

You have achieved and experienced a lot in your life. Now enjoy your new phase of life to the full. Your SBK will support you in all matters relating to health in retirement.

You can submit an application for a pension to the German Pension Insurance. As soon as they have checked your application, they will forward it to us. The next step is for us to check your current health and nursing care insurance and report this information to Deutsche Rentenversicherung. If you were already insured with SBK before you retired, nothing will change for you.

Do you not meet these requirements? Then you can take out voluntary insurance with us. Please contact us about this. 

Good to know: In addition, a flat rate of three years for each child is taken into account for the pre-insurance period. The prerequisite for this is that the children were born up to the date of the pension application and are biological children, adopted children, stepchildren or foster children.

As a pensioner, you pay a health insurance contribution rate of 16.3%. This contribution rate is a combination of the general contribution rate of 14.6% and the additional contribution of 1.7%. For nursing care insurance, as well, you pay the same contribution as any other insured party. In 2024, the contribution rate for nursing care is 3.4%.

The contributions for health and nursing care insurance are calculated on the basis of your individual income. The following sources of income are taken into account in this case:

* For members without children, the contribution rate increases by 0.6 contribution rate points to 4.0% at the end of the month in which the member reaches the age of 23.

In total contributions are only calculated up to the contribution assessment ceiling. In 2024, this ceiling is €5,175 per month.

There is a special minimum income limit for pensioners with voluntary insurance. This is €1,178.33 (2024) per month. The minimum contributions are calculated on this basis, even if your actual income is lower.

For the statutory pension, the pension insurance provider calculates the monthly health and nursing care insurance contribution itself and pays it directly to us. The paying agent of your company pension usually also calculates the contributions itself and transfers them directly to us. If you have been paid capital benefits, you will pay the contributions to us yourself for 10 years. 

You also pay the contributions from income from self-employment yourself. There are two simple ways to do this:

You can simply pay your contributions by direct debit. To do this, you give us a direct debit authorization in the Meine SBK online office. We will then always debit your contributions from your account on time. Alternatively, you can give us direct debit authorization by SEPA direct debit mandate. Please contact you personal consultant to do so. 

Or you can transfer your contributions yourself. Please note, however, that your contributions must be credited to our account by the 15th of the following month at the latest. For example, the contributions for January are due by February 15 at the latest.

Please transfer your contributions to SBK, UniCredit Bank GmbH, IBAN: DE58 7902 0076 0027 9131 99, BIC: HYVEDEMM455

The pension insurance institute contributes towards the health insurance contributions from statutory pensions at a rate of 7.3% and to the additional contribution at a rate of 0.85%.

Contributions from foreign pensions, benefit payments and income from self-employed work are paid by you alone.

In addition to the statutory pension, wages, income from self-employment and unemployment benefit, pension payments are also subject to contributions.

When concluding company pension contracts, many employers advertised the fact that these pension payments were contribution-free. Due to changes in the law, this is no longer the case, which is why many pension recipients only find out that contributions are due when the benefit is paid out.

If the father, mother or both parents die, children, adolescents and young adults receive orphan's pensions, provided the deceased parent paid into the statutory pension insurance scheme. However, the orphan's pension differs from the conventional pension in some respects, for example, there is no requirement to have completed a pre-insurance period. For more information on your health and nursing care insurance cover and contributions reselating on the orphan's pension please contact your personal consultant.

Health insurance for pensioners - a topic that is as important as it is complex. So please feel free to contact us. This is the best way to clarify any unanswered questions and further details.

You can also find detailed information on the subject of health insurance for pensioners on the website of the German Pension Insurance