Overview

• The Social Court Stuttgart overturned a denial (Az: S 24 R 4315/21) and confirmed a widower’s entitlement to survivor benefits even though his marriage lasted under three months.
• The couple had been together for five years and planned to marry before a palliative brain tumor was accidentally diagnosed in the husband seven months after a traffic accident.
• Judges ruled that the engagement predated any knowledge of the illness and that the long-held desire to formalize their relationship constituted a special circumstance allowing an exception.
• Survivors must apply for a pension advance within 30 days of a partner’s death to receive up to three times the monthly rate without income offsets during the first three months.
• Under German law, a small pension provides 25 percent of the deceased’s benefit for up to two years to under-47s with a child, while a large pension pays 55 percent or 60 percent based on age, disability or legacy rules.