Exemption from statutory pension insurance: the three-month deadline

Doctors in a Versorgungswerk can be exempted from statutory pension insurance. Miss the three-month window and you lose the backdating.

If you are a compulsory member of a chamber of physicians and of a professional pension scheme, you can be exempted from compulsory statutory pension insurance for that employment. This is Section 6(1) no. 1 SGB VI.

How the application works

You do not apply to the pension insurer directly. Under Section 6(2) SGB VI you file electronically through your Versorgungswerk, which forwards the application to the pension insurance body together with confirmation of your compulsory memberships and contribution obligation. For the deadline, what counts is the date the Versorgungswerk receives it.

The deadline

Section 6(4) SGB VI: the exemption takes effect from the date the conditions were met if it is applied for within three months. Otherwise it takes effect only from the date the application is received.

Miss the three months and you pay into statutory pension insurance for the intervening period instead of into your Versorgungswerk. That time cannot be moved across afterwards.

Again at every job change

Section 6(5) SGB VI: the exemption is limited to that particular employment. A new job means a new application and a new three months. This gets forgotten regularly, because the first exemption feels like a permanent decision.

Order in your first month

• Register with the chamber of physicians of the state where you work.
• Register with the Versorgungswerk.
• Apply for the exemption through the Versorgungswerk, in your first month rather than your third.