A secure basis for your later years.

Everyone needs an adequate old-age pension provision. A fact of life that applies now more than ever before.

Anyone who is employed by one of the approximately 5,300 VBL affiliated public sector employers, and fulfils the relevant requirements, will be registered in VBLklassik from day one of employment. This means that more than 4.7 million insured persons benefit from the VBL’s occupational pension provision. This compulsory insurance, regulated by collective labour agreements, is your basic insurance for a lifelong occupational pension.

VBLklassik ensures that you receive an occupational pension in addition to your statutory pension – a lifelong financial cushion that enables you to cover a part of your personal pension gap.

This means more financial security for you and your family. Another benefit is that with VBLklassik you are also protected against reduced earning capacity. And in the worst-case scenario, i.e. if something happens to you, we take care of your surviving dependants. Not a nice thought, but a reassuring one.

Another useful feature is that you can further top up this basic insurance with the VBLextra voluntary supplementary insurance: a good way to make sure you are well protected against further decreases in the benefits provided by the statutory pension scheme.

VBLklassik offers a solid package of benefits:

  • a lifelong occupational pension
  • a pension in the event of fully or partially reduced earning capacity and protection for survivors
  • periods of maternity leave, parental leave and reduced earning capacity are credited
  • annual pension adjustments
  • possible profit-sharing in the form of bonus points
  • very low administration costs

 

More than 4.5 million insured persons belong to the VBLklassik solidarity group. This exclusive occupational pension guarantees public sector employees a solid basic pension for their later years.

Within the scope of the compulsory insurance scheme – VBLklassik – insured persons are paid an occupational old-age and survivors’ pension, as well as an occupational pension in the event of reduced earning capacity.

With the 2001 Old-age pension provision Plan and the Collective Labour Agreement on the Occupational Pension Provision Plan for Public Sector Employees (Tarifvertrag Altersversorgung – ATV) of 1 Mach 2002, the public sector collective bargaining parties fundamentally restructured the law on supplementary pension. The previous integrated pension system was terminated on 31 December 2000 and replaced by an occupational pension system.

VBL has essentially provided the VBLklassik for over 80 years. The new supplementary pension is based on a pension points model. Thereby, the integrated treatment of statutory pensions and supplementary pensions fall away, and benefits are provided independently of external frames of reference such as the statutory pension, the civil servants’ pension, the tax and social security contributions system. The occupational pension calculated according to the points model is added to the primary pension provision (statutory pension) and develops independently, i.e. without being linked to it. In particular the final-salary related treatment, based on the civil servants’ pension, has also been abandoned (three-year period before the insured event occurs). It has been replaced with a formula which enables the supplementary pension to reflect the entirety of the work performance under the compulsory insurance scheme. This is achieved by calculating annual pension points, considering two key individual components: the pensionable income for each year of insurance and the so-called age factor which includes the interest effects of the (notional or fictitious) contribution payments on which the points model is based.

The regulations agreed through the collective labour agreement on old-age pension provision were transferred into the new version of the VBL’s Statutes, effective from 1 January 2001 (VBLS). The new Statutes were adopted by the Supervisory Body of the VBL on 19 September 2002, approved by the Federal Ministry of Finance (Bundesministerium der Finanzen) on 22 November 2002 and published in the Federal Gazette (Bundesanzeiger) No. 1 of 3 January 2003.