Your Pension from Austria
The Austrian Pension Insurance
In Austria there are three main carriers for the mandatory Pension Insurances: the “Pension Insurance Authority” (Pensionsversicherungsanstalt), the “Insurance Authority for Rail and Mining” (Versicherungsanstalt für Eisenbahnen und Bergbau) and the “Social Security Authority for Commerce and Farmers” (Sozialversicherungsanstalten der gewerblichen Wirtschaft und die der Bauern).
Regardless with which of the three institutions lie your claims, we will investigate for you whether, when and to what amount your benefit(s) will come due.
Let us take care of your interest and we will optimize your pension and investigate how we can increase the yields of your contributions.
Do a quick check to find out whether you are entitled to draw a pension from the Austrian Social Security Administration!
Invest half an hour of your time - we will do the rest!
Here is how:
Click here or call us at +1-505-328-7777 and ask for our questionnaire. Fill out the questionnaire and send it back to us via e-mail or the Postal Service.
We will analyse your data and quickly give you a Feedback.
There are no obligations to you and you alone decide how to proceed. If your data shows that upon retirement you are owed any money from the Austria government we offer to you our expert services to get you your money! This is solely your decision!
For the questionnaire and its quick analysis we will charge a one-time fee of $ 25.00
Social Security Benefits
The Austrian Social Security Insurance offers the following:
(a) an pension for men and women aged 65 and over (an earlier retirement age applies to women born before July 1, 1968)
(b) disability benefits in case you are not able to work,
(c) survivors’ benefits,
(d) orphan’s benefits
Men and women who have paid contributions into the scheme for a long time can, under certain conditions, apply for pension benefits before the relevant compulsory retirement age.
If an insured employee becomes so ill that he will obviously not be able to return to work for a longer period of time, he can apply for disability benefits.
These benefits are granted to a limited extent and the amount of benefits depends on the number and amount of contributions paid and the degree of income reduction.
In the event of the death of a spouse, the surviving spouse (depending on age) may receive survivors' benefits. Under certain circumstances, these benefits may be limited.
If one or both parents of a child die before the child reaches the age of 18, the surviving child may receive half or full orphan's benefits.
If the surviving child is still in vocational training or other work-related schooling, the age limit rises to 27.
Conditions for receiving a pension
In order to receive Social Security benefits you have to meet the following qualifications:
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In addition to the statutory retirement age, the following requirements (qualifying periods) must be met in order to receive a pension:
at least 180 months of compulsory or voluntary contributions,
or
at least 300 months including substitute periods,
or
at least 180 months of contributions within 360 calendar months before the start of the pension payment.
Waiting periods must be observed for drawing an early pension:
at least 240 months of compulsory contributions,
or
at least 240 months of contributions within 360 calendar months before the start of the pension payment.
The following waiting periods apply to the drawing of disability, survivors' or orphans' pensions:
at least 180 months of compulsory or voluntary contributions,
or
at least 300 months including substitute periods,
or
at least 60 months of contributions in the last 120 calendar months if the benefits are to be claimed before the age of 50. For persons over the age of 50, the waiting periods are gradually extended according to the age of the insured person.
Types of Insurances
Statutory pension insurance is a compulsory insurance scheme to which all employees generally have to contribute. The employer deducts the contribution from the employee's monthly salary and forwards the money to the insurance provider.
There is also the option of (continuing) voluntary insurance with the pension insurance institution. This increases your later pension.
It is important that you establish whether you have made voluntary contributions in the past and whether these contributions have been properly credited to your account with the insurance provider.
You can also take out voluntary insurance for the future.
Please contact us!
We will support you both with your pension application and with the question of how you can improve your pension provision. Our service also includes checking whether all your contributions have been properly credited to your account and advising you on how you can optimize your pension.
Insurance Categories
Statutory pension insurance is a compulsory insurance scheme to which all employees generally have to contribute. The employer deducts the contribution from the employee's monthly salary and forwards the money to the insurance provider.
There is also the option of (continuing) voluntary insurance with the pension insurance institution. This increases your later pension.
It is important that you establish whether you have made voluntary contributions in the past and whether these contributions have been properly credited to your account with the insurance provider.
You can also take out voluntary insurance for the future.
Please contact us!
We will support you both with your pension application and with the question of how you can improve your pension provision. Our service also includes checking whether all your contributions have been properly credited to your account and advising you on how you can optimize your pension.
Procedures of the Austrian Pension Insurances
The Austrian pension insurers have a fully digitized system that makes all data immediately available. However, the laws and regulations of the Austrian insurance providers are different, complex and subject to constant change. As a result, every time an application or claim makes its way through the systems, the process is quite time-consuming.
On average, it takes around three months for a pension application to be approved once all the necessary documents have been submitted and accepted.
Additional applications and also the approval of new documents and/or the addition of periods require a longer processing time, which can be up to 24 months.
Unfortunately, we have no control over how long it takes to process an application. The best way to save time is to provide the insurance carrier (with your help) with as much and as accurate information as possible. This will avoid time-consuming queries from the authorities and financial losses for you.
When planning your retirement, please take into account the time it may take for your application(s) to be finally processed.
Start applying now so that you have all the documents available and all your questions answered by the time you reach retirement age. This way, the processing time for your application will be short and you can receive your pension payments immediately.
We will support you in this.
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In order to receive an Austrian pension, an application must be submitted in Austria.
This also applies when you reach the age limit at which you can receive an old-age pension; this pension is not paid automatically, but must also be applied for.
Each application consists of several pages which the applicant must complete.
The Austrian social security system takes around four to six months to process the application, provided that all documents have been submitted, there are no queries and no additional evidence is requested.
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In view of the fact that information about your employment relationships, some of which date back a long time, may be lost over time, we recommend that you have us check the status of your Austrian insurance account at the latest at the age of 60 or at least 5 years before your planned retirement to ensure that all information has been recorded and that these records are correct. Only then will you receive the maximum possible pension.
If, for example, one of your previous employers had submitted incorrect or incomplete declarations to the pension insurance institution, you would only find out about this once the social insurance authority had approved your pension.
You would then have to go to considerable, expensive and time-consuming effort to make the necessary corrections to your pension account and have the pension amount corrected, during which time you would receive no or too low a pension.
We therefore recommend that, regardless of your current age, you collect all job-related information on your professional activity in Austria now and clarify this information with the Austrian pension insurance institution.
You should also do this if you plan to work in Austria again at some point in the future.
From experience we can say that it is very difficult to correct mistakes made by an Austrian employer or authority after 10 or 20 years.
To correct such mistakes after such a long period of time, you would need extensive evidence; and the more time has passed, the more difficult it becomes to obtain this evidence.
Use the time until your planned retirement wisely.
Engage us now so that we can assist you in clarifying all the details.
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You can request corrections to your pension account at any time, even after many years. If data is missing or incorrect in your account, you are probably not responsible for these errors.
However, you must prove that the information is actually incorrect.
Evidence may include employment references, certificates, payslips and even the testimony of witnesses.
We offer our specialized service to help you correct incorrect or missing data in your pension account.
We investigate at source through our German partner, who may interview witnesses, make enquiries at public offices (files) and even try to locate people who could shed light on your problems.
As this can turn into an extensive effort, we will advise you whether our time and your costs are worthwhile if the result will only lead to a small increase in your pension payments.
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If our research shows that periods and/or contributions are missing from your pension account or that, for example, one or more of your jobs have not been recorded, this will of course have a negative impact on the amount of your potential pension payment.
We will help you to research and add the missing periods and contributions to your pension account. If documents are missing, we go to the source and support you in your investigations. We will interview witnesses, make enquiries at government offices and authorities and even try to locate certain people if they can shed light on your problem.
If it turns out that our investigations could be quite extensive and time-consuming, we can give you an estimate of whether the effort and cost of obtaining the requested documents will be worthwhile for you.
We are experts!
Insurance Periods
Every month during which you paid either a mandatory or voluntary contribution is considered an insurance period. This and all other periods have to be credited on your account with the insurance carrier.
In addition a person can receive credits for insurance periods for which he or she do not have to pay the monthly contributions. For example, a person may receive credits for time spent on raising children, for the duration of being unable to work due to illness or unemployment and receiving disability or unemployment benefits, and time spent as a civil servant.
Please appoint us so that we can look into these matters for you and make sure that your account has been fully and proper credited with all time periods. This will increase the yield of your pension. We are the experts.
Austrian Pensions in the US
Making applications from abroad - pension payments abroad:
As a recipient of social insurance benefits from an Austrian insurance provider, you can have these benefits transferred to a bank account in your country of residence abroad (e.g. in any EU country, Switzerland, the USA and Canada).
You can also have your pension transferred to Australia or elsewhere if you are not resident in Austria.
You can apply for your pension at the Austrian Pension Insurance Institution from any country outside Austria, regardless of where you live. All you have to do is request the relevant application forms in German(!) from the administration and ensure that all supporting documents are issued in this language.
We specialize in looking after insured persons living abroad and handle all transactions with the Austrian insurance institutions professionally.
We offer you an all-round service that goes beyond mere correspondence, such as assistance with your pension application, our forecasts, ensuring that your account shows all periods and replacement periods. We obtain all the necessary evidence and documents, research missing documents and much more.
Employment Subject to Social Security Contributions in Several Countries
Have you worked in more than two countries and paid pension insurance contributions there? In principle, provided you have met all the requirements in the respective countries, you can receive pensions simultaneously from each country in which you have worked and made your contributions.
The resulting income tax due on these payments to you must be paid by you in the country in which you are resident or to the country to which these pensions are transferred.
The tax rules are different in each country, so we cannot provide information on tax issues. However, we can help you to find experts who can give you binding advice on tax issues.
We work with experts who are fluent in the languages of the countries concerned and can put you in touch with legal advisors or lawyers who can also represent you in court if necessary.
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The respective Social Security Administrations of Austria and the USA have signed an agreement, which guarantees pension payouts to citizens residing in each partner-country ('Vertragsstaat'). This agreement stipulates that the partner-countries view each others' citizen as their own in regard to social security matters.
If you have paid social security contributions into the Austrian system you are entitled, through the stipulations of this agreement, to your pension abroad. In addition you may under certain circumstances receive credits for time periods even when no contributions have been paid during those times.
Make sure you secure these benefits as they are offered in this agreement. You can that way increase the yields of your contributions.
Please talk to us. We are specialized in securing your entitlements while you live abroad.
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In general, if you fulfill all requirements, you are allowed to receive your pension from Austria simultaneously with any Social Security payouts from the USA.
All you have to do is ask us to assist you with setting up your application and to guide you through the laborious and complex process until success is guaranteed.
Your need to apply for your US pension with the US Social Security Administration. Upon request our American partner can assist you there as well.
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Germany, all EU member states, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland have signed social security agreements with each other.
These agreements grant the citizens of these countries certain equal rights with regard to the status of their pension insurance, regardless of the country of residence and nationality.
We support you in every respect through our foreign offices.
This applies to citizens of the EU, EFTA, Switzerland and all other countries, but also to anyone who has ever worked in Austria, regardless of their nationality.
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In general, provided you meet all the requirements, you can simultaneously draw a pension from Austria, a member state of the EU, EFTA, Switzerland or a country with which Austria has concluded a social security agreement.
However, there are differences that may affect the amount of your pension.
If you contact our office, you can be sure that we will support you from the application to the receipt of your pension.
We will help you get all the benefits you are entitled to in order to maximize the amount of your payouts.
You will need to make extensive preparations; we will support you every step of the way to make it easy for you.