Overview
- Applicants are urged to file at least three months before retirement, when final payroll data for the last months are often not yet available.
- Question 9.7.2 on the DRV form asks whether to estimate up to the final three months of earnings to issue a faster pension decision.
- Selecting Yes can lock in a lower lifelong pension if overtime payouts, paid-out vacation, or bonuses are not captured, whereas choosing No delays the decision until actual data arrive.
- For stable incomes the estimate is typically sensible, and late shifts to part-time can still be treated like full-time under the estimate, yielding small monthly gains.
- From January 2027, an SGB VI change will standardize the estimate and require upward corrections with back pay for underestimates, and a recent Bundessozialgericht ruling barred later reductions when employer data came in lower.