The energy price flat rate of 300 euros developed by the traffic light coalition is intended to help people to cope with the surge in prices.

In September, it went to employees and the self-employed as a subsidy for increased costs "related to their income generation," as it was called at the time.

And after strong political allegations that retirees were forgotten, pensioners will now also be considered in a second attempt in December.

That's what the Bundestag recently decided - with an amazing side effect, as has now been shown: more than a million seniors will collect both bonuses, i.e. they will receive 600 euros instead of 300 euros gross.

Dietrich Creutzburg

Business correspondent in Berlin.

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The German pension insurance has just confirmed it in a circular.

"Pension recipients may have already received the energy price flat rate as employees," it says.

“These people are still eligible for the December payment.

This is not an unauthorized double payment.” In short: Anyone who is employed receives 300 euros.

Those who are retired also receive 300 euros.

And those who receive wages in addition to their pension receive 600 euros.

However, the net result for these is not exactly twice as much, since all premiums are taxable.

The government put the relief volume (for which taxpayers will have to pay later in case of doubt) at 10.4 billion euros for the first lump sum and at a good 6 billion euros for the second.

According to information from the pension insurance, at least three larger groups will be able to look forward to twice the premium.

On the one hand, there are a good one million insured persons who were already in retirement in September and who work a little on the side, maybe only in a mini-job.

Second, there are those who were still working in September but will have reached their regular retirement age before the premium payment date in December;

on average, around 75,000 insured people retire every month.

And finally, there are recipients of disability pensions who only work to a limited extent, but have not given up.

They also receive bonuses on both.

Retirees can also benefit twice over

Similar to statutory pensioners, civil servants can also benefit twice.

If retirees work part-time, they too can “be eligible for both groups of people,” reports the Federal Ministry of the Interior.

And if you retire before December, you'll also have twice as much.

Another type of double payment, on the other hand, should be avoided, as the law suggests: pensioners who were pension insured before they became civil servants should only receive the 300 euros in their capacity as pensioners - but not additionally as pensioners.

However, how well the offices can filter out such cases is considered one of the tricky questions in the upcoming implementation.

It is still "completely unclear how the traffic light will determine and reverse double payments", diagnoses Stephan Stracke (CSU), labor market and social expert of the Union faction.

And he sees another gap in the law: It does not contain any rules on the tax liability of the premium for retirees - there is only a statement that it is taxable.

Stracke suspects that the coalition deliberately wanted to avoid a specific regulation of the tax issue, because otherwise its entire law would have required the approval of the Bundesrat.

The annoying consequence of such deficiencies, however, is: "They cause a great deal of uncertainty among those affected as to whether and to what extent the lump sum may be retained," he judges.

The traffic light accepts this with approval.