German widow's pension (Witwenrente) 2026: what survivors living abroad can claim
Updated: Sep 3
Written by Johannes Kühn · Last reviewed 21 August 2026 · Pension value and income allowance valid
1 July 2026 – 30 June 2027; contribution ceiling and average earnings for calendar year 2026 ·
Next review: July 2027
The first question: does the German record meet five years?
The first decisive question is whether your late spouse's German insurance record meets the five-year qualifying period (allgemeine Wartezeit — 60 months). That period can be met through German periods alone, through qualifying foreign periods under EU coordination law or a social security agreement, through an early-fulfilment exception (a work accident, or a death shortly after training), or because your spouse was already drawing a German pension.
If it is met, a widow's or widower's pension (Witwenrente / Witwerrente) may be payable — provided the survivor conditions are also satisfied: a valid marriage or registered partnership at the time of death, normally of at least one year, and no remarriage. The pension is paid to any country, whatever your nationality. Apply within 12 months of the death and it runs from the death itself, including three months at 100% of your spouse's pension.
If it is not met — and that is the reason no survivor's pension exists — the surviving spouse or registered partner, or eligible orphans, can instead claim a refund of the contributions your spouse personally paid: usually the employee share of pension-insured earnings, up to the contribution ceiling, as a single lump sum. Survivors are exempt from the 24-month waiting period that applies to living claimants, but the claim is time-barred four years after the end of the year of death.
Not sure how many months there are? The insurance record (Versicherungsverlauf) held by the Deutsche Rentenversicherung settles it. Tell us when your spouse last worked in Germany, where you live and when he or she died. We check whether a survivors' refund is possible and tell you plainly when the record points to a pension instead — and where that pension claim has to be filed. A refund we handle runs on our usual terms: 9.75% success fee, maximum €2,500, nothing upfront. Start the survivor check → · Schedule a call
What is a German widow's pension (Witwenrente)?
A Witwenrente (widow's pension) or Witwerrente (widower's pension) is a survivor's pension paid by the German statutory pension insurance (Deutsche Rentenversicherung, DRV) under § 46 SGB VI to the spouse or registered partner of an insured person who died after completing the general five-year qualifying period. It belongs to the "pensions on account of death" (Renten wegen Todes, Hinterbliebenenrente) together with the orphan's pension (Waisenrente) and the child-raising pension (Erziehungsrente). It is not an inheritance, and neither foreign residence nor foreign nationality by itself excludes it. At the end of 2025 the DRV was paying 4.35 million widow's pensions (average €819 a month) and 0.76 million widower's pensions (average €461), and it transfers around 1.8 million pensions to more than 150 countries.
There are two sizes. The small widow's pension (kleine Witwenrente) is 25% of your spouse's pension, paid for 24 months. The large widow's pension (große Witwenrente) is 55% (60% under the pre-2002 rules) and has no time limit once you have reached the age limit; on the child or disability ground it runs for as long as that ground lasts. Both end on remarriage. Which one you get depends on your age, your children and your capacity to work — not on how long your spouse worked.
Which route applies to you?
Work through the steps in order. "Months" are calendar months with at least one day of German contributions (§ 122 SGB VI), including child-raising periods credited for a child raised in Germany and months of unemployment benefit for which the employment agency paid contributions.
Step 1 — Did your spouse have 60 or more months of German contributions, or was he or she already receiving a German pension at death? Yes → widow's pension route; go to step 2. No → step 1a.
Step 1a — Did your spouse also have insurance periods in the EU, the EEA, the UK, Switzerland or a country with a German social security agreement?
Foreign periods can sometimes be combined with German periods to reach five years. Which periods may be combined depends on EU coordination law and the particular agreement; several foreign records do not automatically add together, and agreements usually require a minimum German period first (the US agreement, for example, 18 months of German coverage). If the permitted combination reaches five years → widow's pension route, calculated on the German months; go to step 2. If not → step 1b.
Step 1b — Was the death caused by a work accident or occupational disease, or did it occur within six years after finishing training? The accident route applies only if your spouse was compulsorily insured in Germany at the time of the accident or had 12 months of compulsory contributions in the previous two years; the training route needs 12 months of compulsory contributions in the two years before death (§ 53 SGB VI). Yes → widow's pension route; go to step 2. No → refund route (Route B below).
Step 2 — Were you married or in a registered partnership at the time of death, for at least one year? Yes → step 3. Under one year → the law presumes a marriage entered into to secure a pension (Versorgungsehe, § 46 Abs. 2a SGB VI). The pension is paid only if that presumption is rebutted on all the circumstances of the case — an unforeseeable death is the typical argument, not an automatic one. Marriages concluded before 2002 are exempt. If the pension fails here, there is no refund either, because the pension is missing for a reason other than the five-year rule.
Step 3 — Have you remarried? Yes → the pension ends with the first remarriage and a lump sum of 24 months' pension is paid (§ 107 SGB VI); if the later marriage has ended, ask about the pension after the last-but-one spouse (§ 46 Abs. 3). No → step 4.
Step 4 — Are you at least 46 years and 6 months old (deaths in 2026; table below), raising a child under 18, caring in your household for a child who cannot support themselves because of a disability (at any age), or unable to work (erwerbsgemindert)? Yes → large widow's pension: 55% (60% under the pre-2002 rules). No → small widow's pension: 25% for 24 months; the large pension can follow once you reach the age limit.
Widowers and surviving registered partners have the same rights (§ 46 Abs. 4 SGB VI). Divorced spouses qualify only where the divorce took place before 1 July 1977 (§ 243); a divorced parent raising the deceased's child may qualify for a child-raising pension (Erziehungsrente, § 47) on his or her own record.
Route A: the German widow's pension in 2026
Who qualifies
You are entitled to a widow's or widower's pension if your late spouse had completed the qualifying period (or one of the exceptions in steps 1a and 1b applies, or he or she was already drawing a German pension), you were legally married or in a registered partnership at the time of death — normally for at least one year — and you have not remarried (§ 46 SGB VI). Neither your residence nor your nationality, nor your spouse's, excludes the pension by itself; what differs abroad is the administration, the tax treatment and the paperwork, covered below.
Small or large — the 2026 comparison
Small widow's pension (kleine Witwenrente) | Large widow's pension (große Witwenrente) | |
Share of your spouse's pension | 25% | 55% — or 60% if you married before 1 January 2002 and at least one of you was born before 2 January 1962 (§ 255 SGB VI) |
Condition | None beyond the general rules | You are at least 46 years 6 months (deaths in 2026), or raising a child under 18, or caring in your household for a child who cannot support themselves because of a disability (any age), or have reduced earning capacity |
Duration | 24 calendar months after the month of death (unlimited under the pre-2002 rules) | No time limit once the age limit is reached; on the child or disability ground for as long as it lasts. Ends on remarriage |
Months 1–3 after the death (Sterbevierteljahr) | 100% of your spouse's pension, no income offset | 100% of your spouse's pension, no income offset |
Your own income | Offset above the allowance (see below) | Offset above the allowance (see below) |
Legal basis | § 46 Abs. 1, § 67 Nr. 5 SGB VI | § 46 Abs. 2, § 67 Nr. 6, § 242a, § 255 SGB VI |
The age limit for the large pension is being raised from 45 to 47 and depends on the year of death (§ 242a Abs. 5 SGB VI):
Year of death | Minimum age for the large widow's pension |
2024 | 46 years 2 months |
2025 | 46 years 4 months |
2026 | 46 years 6 months |
2027 | 46 years 8 months |
2028 | 46 years 10 months |
2029 or later | 47 years |
If you are younger than the limit and have no qualifying child, you receive the small pension for 24 months. The large pension is not lost: once you reach the age limit — even years later — you can claim it, provided you have not remarried. A small pension still running at that point converts automatically (§ 115 Abs. 3 SGB VI); if it has ended, file a new application.
How much will you receive?
The widow's pension is a percentage of the pension your spouse received — or, if he or she had not retired, of the disability pension he or she would have received on the day of death. The formula (§ 64 SGB VI): pension points (Entgeltpunkte) × access factor (Zugangsfaktor) × pension type factor (1.0 for the first three months, then 0.25 or 0.55) × current pension value (aktueller Rentenwert: €42.52 from 1 July 2026, €40.79 before). One pension point corresponds to a year of contributions on the average German salary (€51,944 in 2026). Three elements decide whether a short German record produces a small or a meaningful pension:
The credited period (Zurechnungszeit). If your spouse died before retirement age, the DRV adds a credited period from the death up to age 66 years 3 months for deaths in 2026 (66 years 4 months in 2027, rising to 67 by 2031; § 59, § 253a SGB VI), as if he or she had kept contributing. The credited months are valued at the average of your spouse's record over the whole period from age 17 to death (§ 72 SGB VI); gaps — including years spent outside Germany without creditable periods — pull that average down, while recognised periods of school or university after 17 do not. For someone who came to Germany as an adult, worked a few years and left, the credited period often adds as many points again as the contributions themselves, sometimes twice as many. Only the DRV's calculation is binding.
Deductions (Abschläge). If your spouse died before age 65, the pension is reduced by 0.3% per month of the shortfall, up to 10.8% — months before age 62 do not count (§ 77 Abs. 2 Nr. 4 SGB VI, deaths from 2024). A pension already in payment keeps the deduction it already had; no new one is added.
Residence outside the EU and the agreement countries. German contribution months always count in full (§ 113 SGB VI); credited and non-contributory periods count in the ratio of German contribution points to all contribution points — in full if every contribution was German (§ 114 SGB VI). The old rule that cut pensions to 70% for foreign nationals outside agreement countries was abolished on 1 October 2013.
Three illustrations at the 2026 pension value, assuming average pay and no other insurance periods:
Case | Pension points | Full pension (100%) | Small widow's pension (25%) | Large widow's pension (55%) |
Exactly five years of contributions, death as an old-age pensioner | 5.0 | €212.60 | €53.15 | €116.93 |
Ten years of contributions, death as an old-age pensioner | 10.0 | €425.20 | €106.30 | €233.86 |
Seven years (2019–2025), death in 2026 at 38, credited period added (about 9 to 15 extra points depending on how the years before 2019 are treated), 10.8% deduction | 16.3 to 22.0 | €618 to €835 | €155 to €209 | €340 to €459 |
The third case is the one families abroad most often underestimate: seven years of contributions alone would be worth €265 a month in full, but the credited period more than doubles it, and the first three months are paid at the full amount in every case.
Your own income reduces it — the allowance and the 40% rule
After the three-month death quarter, your own net income above a monthly allowance is offset against the pension at 40% (§ 97 SGB VI). This applies to the small and the large pension alike; only orphans may earn without limit.
1 July 2026 – 30 June 2027 | 1 July 2025 – 30 June 2026 | |
Allowance (26.4 × current pension value) | €1,122.53 per month | €1,076.86 |
Additional allowance per child entitled to an orphan's pension (5.6 × pension value) | €238.11 | €228.42 |
Offset | 40% of net income above the allowance | 40% |
"Net" is a standardised figure: the DRV takes your previous year's gross income and deducts a flat rate — 40% from salaries, 39.8% from self-employment income, 14% from statutory pensions (13% if the pension began before 2011), 25% from rental and other capital income (§ 18b SGB IV). Comparable foreign income counts the same way (§ 18a SGB IV): a salary in Dubai, a US Social Security pension or rent from a flat in Pune all reduce a German widow's pension. Under the pre-2002 rules only earned income and earnings-replacement income count.
Example. Large widow's pension €500. Your gross salary abroad is the equivalent of €2,500 a month. Net for the offset: €2,500 − 40% = €1,500. Above the allowance: €1,500 − €1,122.53 = €377.47. Offset: 40% = €150.99. Pension paid: €349.01 a month. With one child entitled to an orphan's pension the allowance rises to €1,360.64 and the offset falls to €55.74. The DRV re-checks your income every July; report changes in between to avoid repayment demands.
When payments start — the 12-month rule
The widow's pension is paid from the day of death if your spouse was not yet receiving a pension, and from the month after the death if he or she was — the deceased's own pension covers the month of death (§ 99 Abs. 2, § 102 Abs. 5 SGB VI). That start applies only if you apply within 12 calendar months after the month of death. Apply later and the DRV pays at most 12 months retroactively; every month further back is lost for good.
If your spouse was receiving a German pension, it is paid in full for the month of death; anything transferred for later months must be repaid. The advance of three months' pension that the Deutsche Post Renten Service pays to widows who apply within 30 days is available only to survivors resident in Germany; abroad, the three full months arrive with the regular decision.
How to apply from abroad
Gather the documents. Death certificate; marriage or partnership certificate; your passport; your spouse's German insurance number (Versicherungsnummer — on old payslips, the annual pension information letter or the social security card; the DRV can trace it from name, date and place of birth); your bank details (a German account is not needed); proof of your previous year's income; birth certificates of children under 27; your spouse's last pension notice if he or she was a pensioner. Simple copies are normally enough; the DRV asks for certified copies or German translations only when it needs them, and English-language certificates are often accepted as they are — ask before paying a translator.
Use the right form. The German application is R0500 (Antrag auf Hinterbliebenenrente) with the notes R0501 and the income annex R0660; R0510 covers marriages of under a year and R0650 the increased allowance for children. Bilingual agreement forms exist for the USA (A5042), Canada (A5226), India (A7402) and Australia (A9802).
File it. In the EU, the UK, Switzerland and every agreement country you may hand the claim to your own social security institution, which forwards it to Germany and confirms your local periods: any US Social Security office (form SSA-2490-BK), Service Canada, Services Australia (Centrelink International Services), the EPFO in India. Everywhere else — and in every country if you prefer — apply directly to the DRV by post or through its online services. The DRV carrier responsible for your country is listed on the DRV's page "Ansprechpartner und Verbindungsstellen" (deutsche-rentenversicherung.de); for the USA, Canada, India and the UK it is DRV Nord, for Australia DRV Oldenburg-Bremen, unless your spouse's account is held by DRV Bund or Knappschaft-Bahn-See.
Answer follow-up requests quickly. Missing documents and unconfirmed foreign periods are the usual reasons cross-border claims stall. There is no official processing-time guarantee; plan for months rather than weeks, and expect all back-payments in one amount once the pension notice (Rentenbescheid) arrives.
Check the notice. A decision sent to an address outside Germany carries a three-month objection period (Widerspruch); within Germany it is one month (§ 84 SGG). The same applies to a refund decision.
What ends or changes the pension
Remarriage ends it; you receive a lump sum (Rentenabfindung) of 24 times the average monthly pension of the last 12 months — for the small pension, 24 minus the months already paid (§ 107 SGB VI). Income is re-assessed every year. Moving is allowed anywhere; tell the DRV and the Renten Service two months ahead. Children under 18 — or under 27 in school, training or university — receive an orphan's pension calculated with a 10% factor (half-orphan) or 20% (full orphan) plus an orphan's supplement (§ 48, § 78 SGB VI), paid abroad without income offset.
Route B: fewer than five years — claiming the contributions back
Who can claim
If no survivor's pension exists because the five-year qualifying period is not met — not through German periods, not through creditable foreign periods, not through the § 53 exceptions — the law refunds the contributions to the survivors: widows, widowers, surviving registered partners and orphans (§ 210 Abs. 1 Nr. 3 SGB VI). The DRV's own English wording: a refund "also applies to surviving dependents and surviving civil partners from a registered civil union when the person who has died did not fulfil the general five-year qualifying period."
The DRV's working instructions (GRA zu § 210 SGB VI) set the order: the surviving spouse or registered partner is entitled; half-orphans can claim only if there is no surviving spouse or partner; full orphans — the deceased's children from an earlier relationship whose other parent has also died — can claim even if a spouse survives, and the amount is then split in equal shares among everyone entitled; several orphans always share equally. Children count as orphans if they would qualify for an orphan's pension (under 18, or under 27 in education) at the time of death or at a later point; it does no harm if that condition has lapsed again by the time they apply. Orphans should apply together: the DRV splits the amount among the orphans entitled on the date of the application and rejects later applications, and it checks of its own motion whether a spouse or other orphans exist.
The survivors' refund has no nationality or residence condition: it is available to the widow of a German, an EU citizen or any other national, wherever she lives — the restrictions that apply to living claimants do not apply here. How long you were married does not matter, because the DRV expressly does not examine the one-year Versorgungsehe rule for the refund; a later remarriage does not affect it either. All that counts is a valid marriage or registered partnership on the date of death; a divorced former spouse has no claim. One alternative the DRV itself points out: a surviving spouse who is raising a child and has a German record of his or her own may do better with a Rentensplitting (§ 120a Abs. 3 Nr. 3 SGB VI) followed by a child-raising pension (§ 47 Abs. 3) than with the refund — rare abroad, but worth a check where it applies.
No waiting period — but a four-year limit
A living claimant must wait 24 calendar months after the last compulsory contribution (§ 210 Abs. 2 SGB VI). That waiting period does not apply to survivors: the refund can be claimed from the day of death.
There is, however, a deadline. The DRV treats the survivors' claim as arising on the date of death, and claims to social benefits become time-barred four years after the end of the calendar year in which they arose (§ 45 SGB I). A death in March 2026 therefore has to be claimed by 31 December 2030; after that the DRV can, and as a rule does, refuse the refund as time-barred. For an orphan whose entitlement only begins later — a 20-year-old who starts university, for example — the claim falls due at that point. Two more reasons not to wait: a change in the law that adds months to a record, as the 2014 and 2019 child-raising reforms did, can lift an unclaimed account to the five-year mark and end the refund claim in favour of a pension entitlement; and the refund is paid at its nominal value, without interest or indexation. The right is also personal — if a widow dies without having applied, only a claim already filed passes to her heirs.
How much is refunded
You receive the contributions your spouse personally bore: usually the employee half of compulsory contributions on pension-insured earnings up to the contribution ceiling (the employer half stays in the system), half of any voluntary or self-employed contributions, and the employee share of mini-job contributions (currently 3.6% of pay in a commercial mini-job, 13.6% in a private household). The amounts are nominal, without interest.
Years | Employee share of pension-insured earnings | Monthly contribution ceiling (West) |
2007–2011 | 9.95% | €5,250 – €5,500 |
2012 | 9.80% | €5,600 |
2013–2014 | 9.45% | €5,800 – €5,950 |
2015–2017 | 9.35% | €6,050 – €6,350 |
2018–2022 | 9.30% | €6,500 – €7,100 |
2023 | 9.30% | €7,300 |
2024 | 9.30% | €7,550 |
2025 | 9.30% | €8,050 (nationwide) |
2026 | 9.30% | €8,450 (nationwide) |
Example. Your spouse earned €55,000 a year from 2023 to 2025 (36 months, below the ceiling): 3 × €55,000 × 9.3% = €15,345. Our German pension refund calculator applies the exact rate and ceiling for every year back to 1975.
The refund is paid as a lump sum, without deductions by the DRV. Its German and local tax treatment should be confirmed for the individual survivor. With the payment the insurance account is closed: the application cannot be limited to part of the contributions, and all rights from every period on the record — including periods for which nothing is refunded, such as child-raising or credited unemployment — are extinguished (§ 210 Abs. 6 SGB VI). If your spouse had already received a refund or a benefit from the account, only contributions paid afterwards can be refunded.
When the refund is not available
A pension entitlement exists after all. Before it refunds, the DRV checks the § 53 exceptions and whether creditable foreign periods — in the EU and EEA, Switzerland, the UK (periods from 2021), the agreement countries, or at an international organisation (§ 4 RVIOBeschZG) — complete the qualifying period. Which periods may be combined depends on EU coordination law and the particular agreement. Where the combination reaches five years, you receive a German widow's pension on the German months instead, and the refund is excluded even if that pension is worth far less than the contributions. You cannot choose.
The pension fails for another reason. If your spouse had five years or more but your own claim fails — an unrebutted Versorgungsehe presumption, or remarriage before you claimed — no refund is possible, because the pension is not missing "on account of the qualifying period."
Your spouse had already filed for a refund before dying. Then the pending claim passes to the heirs under the Civil Code (§ 58, § 59 SGB I), not to the survivors as such.
How to claim the refund
Survivors use the same form as living claimants — V0901 (Antrag auf Beitragserstattung bei Aufenthalt im Ausland, bilingual German/English; V0900 within Germany) — tick the survivors' box and attach the death certificate, the marriage or partnership certificate, your passport, your spouse's insurance number and a payment declaration for your foreign bank account; orphans add their birth certificates. The application goes to the DRV carrier that holds your spouse's account. The refund is paid in one amount, in euros, to an account in any country; bank charges and conversion losses are yours. Refund claims we file are paid after about eight weeks on average; survivors' refunds follow the same path, although the DRV first confirms that no pension entitlement exists, which can add time.
Claim your spouse's contributions back. No waiting period, no upfront cost: our fee of 9.75% (maximum €2,500) is deducted only after the refund has arrived in the escrow account of our partner law firm. Nothing to pay if no refund is paid.
Start the survivor check → · Pricing · How the refund works for US citizens, Indian citizens, Canadians and Australians
Living outside Germany: what changes
Payment. The Deutsche Post Renten Service transfers the pension monthly, on the last bank working day, to a bank account in any country. For accounts outside the SEPA area the DRV bears the charges only up to the first correspondent bank; conversion losses are yours.
Proof of life. Once a year you confirm that you are alive (Lebensbescheinigung) on a form the Renten Service sends in June or July, certified by a local authority, bank or German mission — or through the Renten Service's digital procedure. For a growing number of countries, Australia among them, automatic data exchange replaces the form.
Health insurance. Outside the EU, the EEA, Switzerland and the UK — and outside the few agreement countries whose agreement covers health insurance — you are not insured in the German statutory system: no health or long-term-care contributions are deducted, and no German cover exists.
Reporting duties. Changes of address, bank, marital status and income must be reported; the Renten Service and the DRV keep separate files.
Tax on a German widow's pension if you live abroad
Please note that this is not tax advice, check with your local tax consultant:
A German widow's pension is German-source income. Non-residents are subject to limited German income-tax liability on it (§ 49 Abs. 1 Nr. 7 EStG); the Finanzamt Neubrandenburg (Rentenempfänger im Ausland) handles everyone abroad whose only German income is a pension. Only part of the pension is taxable — the share is fixed by the year the pension starts (84% for pensions starting in 2026, rising by 0.5 points a year), and a widow's pension that follows the deceased's own pension keeps his or her lower share (§ 22 Nr. 1 EStG). Non-residents receive no basic tax-free allowance unless they opt for unlimited liability under § 1 Abs. 3 EStG, so even small pensions can produce a modest bill. Whether Germany may tax at all depends on the double-taxation agreement with your country: for US residents only the USA may tax (Art. 18(5) of the Germany–USA treaty); for Canadian residents Germany taxes the taxable share and Canada credits it (Federal Fiscal Court I R 9/16); for Australian residents Germany may tax, capped at 15% of the gross pension for pensions first paid from 2017 (Art. 17(3) of the 2015 treaty). For other countries check the treaty article on social security pensions before you file; without a treaty Germany taxes the taxable share and your home country may tax as well.
The contribution refund is different in kind — a lump sum, not a pension — and its German and local tax treatment should be confirmed for the individual survivor.
If your spouse was already receiving a German pension: report the death
Inform the Deutsche Post Renten Service without delay — Deutsche Post AG, Niederlassung Renten Service, 13496 Berlin, Germany; telephone +49 221 5692-777 for pensions paid abroad — with a copy of the death certificate and your spouse's insurance number. The pension is due in full for the month of death; anything paid for later months is reclaimed. Reporting the death does not start your own claim: the widow's pension and the refund each need their own application.
Two illustrative examples
Large widow's pension — Chennai, India. Her husband worked for a German engineering firm from 2014 to 2022 (nine years, average pay), returned to India and died in 2025 at 52. She is 48 and was married for 21 years. Result: 100% of his projected pension for three months, then 55% without time limit, with a deduction of 10.8% because he died before 62. Her Indian salary is offset at 40% above the allowance. She applied through the EPFO within five months of the death and receives every month from the date of death.
Survivors' refund — Houston, USA. He worked in Germany for 14 months in 2022–2023 on a local German employment contract, moved back to Texas and died in 2025. Fourteen German months are below the 18 the US agreement requires before US coverage can be added, so no German pension can arise from his account. She claimed the refund immediately — no 24-month wait for survivors, and well inside the four-year limit: 14 months at 9.3% of an €80,000 salary, about €8,700, paid to her Texas account roughly nine weeks after filing.
(Illustrations based on the legal position on 21 August 2026, not actual client files.)
Frequently asked questions
Can I receive a German widow's pension if I live outside Germany and am not German? Yes. German survivor's pensions are paid worldwide regardless of nationality (§§ 110–113 SGB VI); since 1 October 2013 there is no reduction for foreign nationals in countries without an agreement. You need a bank account, a proof of life where no automatic data exchange exists and, depending on the tax treaty, a German tax return.
How much is the German widow's pension in 2026? 25% (small) or 55% (large; 60% under pre-2002 rules) of the pension your spouse received or would have received, at €42.52 per pension point from 1 July 2026. The first three months are paid at 100%. Own net income above €1,122.53 a month is offset at 40%.
What is the minimum age for the large widow's pension in 2026? 46 years and 6 months for deaths in 2026 (46 years 8 months in 2027, 46 years 10 months in 2028, 47 from 2029). Raising a child under 18, caring for a disabled child in your household or having reduced earning capacity qualifies at any age. Below the limit you receive the small pension for 24 months.
Is there a deadline to apply for the widow's pension? You can apply at any time, but only an application within 12 calendar months after the month of death is paid from the death itself. Later applications are paid at most 12 months retroactively (§ 99 Abs. 2 SGB VI).
My spouse had fewer than five years of German contributions — what can I claim? If the qualifying period is not met through German periods, creditable foreign periods or the work-accident and training exceptions, no widow's pension exists. Instead, the surviving spouse or partner — half-orphans only if there is none, full orphans alongside — can claim a refund of the contributions the deceased personally paid (§ 210 Abs. 1 Nr. 3 SGB VI), paid as a lump sum to any country.
Is there a waiting period or deadline for the survivors' refund? No waiting period: the 24-month rule for living claimants does not apply to survivors. But the claim arises on the date of death and is time-barred four years after the end of that year (§ 45 SGB I) — a death in 2026 must be claimed by 31 December 2030.
Can I choose the refund instead of a small widow's pension? No. The refund exists only where no survivor's pension is payable because the five-year qualifying period is not met. If a pension entitlement exists — even a small one created by creditable foreign periods — the refund is excluded.
Does my own income or pension reduce the widow's pension? Yes, after the three-month death quarter. Standardised net income above €1,122.53 a month — plus €238.11 per child entitled to an orphan's pension — is offset at 40%. Foreign income, including US Social Security, counts (§ 97 SGB VI, §§ 18a–18b SGB IV).
Glossary
German term | Meaning |
Witwenrente / Witwerrente / Hinterbliebenenrente | Widow's / widower's pension; survivor's pension as the umbrella term (§ 46 SGB VI) |
Kleine / große Witwenrente | Small (25%, 24 months) / large (55% or 60%) widow's pension |
Sterbevierteljahr | The three calendar months after the month of death, paid at 100% |
Allgemeine Wartezeit | General qualifying period of five years (60 months) |
Entgeltpunkte / aktueller Rentenwert | Pension points / value per point (€42.52 from 1 July 2026) |
Zurechnungszeit | Credited period from the death to age 66 years 3 months (deaths in 2026) |
Abschlag | Deduction of 0.3% per month before 65, maximum 10.8% |
Einkommensanrechnung / Freibetrag | Income offset / allowance (€1,122.53 a month from 1 July 2026) |
Versorgungsehe | Presumption that a marriage of under one year was entered into to secure a pension |
Beitragserstattung | Contribution refund (§ 210 SGB VI) |
Versicherungsnummer / Versicherungsverlauf | German insurance number / insurance record |
Renten Service / Lebensbescheinigung | Deutsche Post unit paying pensions for the DRV / annual proof of life |
Legal basis and sources
SGB VI §§ 46 (widow's and widower's pension; Abs. 2a one-year rule), 47, 48, 50–53 (qualifying period, early fulfilment), 59 and 253a (credited period), 64, 67, 72, 77 (pension formula, type factors, valuation, deductions), 97 with §§ 18a–18b SGB IV (income offset), 99 (12-month rule), 107 (lump sum on remarriage), 110–114 (payment abroad), 115, 120a, 122, 210 (contribution refund), 242a, 243, 255; § 45 SGB I (limitation); § 84 SGG (objection periods); §§ 1, 22, 49 EStG; Regulation (EC) 883/2004; Germany–USA Social Security Agreement Art. 7; § 4 RVIOBeschZG. Deutsche Rentenversicherung: Gemeinsame Rechtliche Arbeitsanweisungen zu § 210 SGB VI (survivors' section) and on multilateral aggregation of insurance periods; "Renten für Hinterbliebene"; English overview "Benefits"; press releases of 12 June 2026 (pension adjustment, €42.52) and 13 July 2026 (allowance €1,122.53 / €238.11); liaison-office list; form packages R0500/R0501/R0660 and V0900/V0901; statistics as at 31 December 2025. Federal Ministry of Labour, 29 April 2026 (Rentenwertbestimmungsverordnung 2026). Bundesregierung, Sozialversicherungs-Rechengrößen 2026. US Social Security Administration, "Totalization Agreement with Germany". Bundestag Research Service, WD 6-009/24. Federal Fiscal Court I R 9/16. Finanzamt Neubrandenburg (RiA).
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