Apply for benefits for victims of state injustice in the former GDR who are still suffering from the health consequences today.
Description
Many citizens of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) were politically persecuted or arbitrarily disadvantaged and harassed by the authorities of the GDR state apparatus or the Soviet occupation zone in very different ways. Sometimes this went so far that those affected suffered health damage from which they still suffer today.
Such health damage can be, for example:
- chronic pain caused by the consequences of police actions contrary to the rule of law or
- long-term psychological damage caused by years of spying and harassment by the Stasi.
If this applies to you and there are no grounds for exclusion, you may be entitled to a pension.
You are excluded from the Beschädigtenversorgung if you yourself have violated the principles of humanity or the rule of law in the past or have seriously abused your position for your own benefit or to the detriment of others. This is the case, for example, if you voluntarily worked as an informer or as an informer for the Ministry for State Security (MfS) in order to gain your own advantages.
The benefits for damaged persons include the following:
- Curative and medical treatment,
- basic and compensatory pensions for damaged persons as well as benefits to compensate for occupational damage, under certain conditions with a severely damaged person's allowance, nursing allowance or similar,
- Welfare benefits, which supplement the other welfare benefits on an individual basis. As a rule, they are dependent on income and assets; however, income is not taken into account if your need arises exclusively from the health impairment. Among other things, the following are eligible
- Supplementary assistance for living expenses,
- Assistance for the continuation of the household,
- Benefits for participation in working life,
- assistance for the elderly,
- care assistance,
- housing assistance and
- Recreational assistance.
The following conditions must be met in order for you to be eligible to receive compensation:
- You have been rehabilitated because of a sovereign measure taken by a German official body to settle an individual case in the accession area from the period between May 8, 1945, and October 2, 1990, or it has been determined that such a measure was contrary to the rule of law.
- The administrative decision must have caused damage to your health.
- You yourself have not violated the principles of humanity or the rule of law or seriously abused your position for your own benefit or to the detriment of others, e.g.
- significantly aided the political system of the GDR (for example, by working in the state apparatus or in the SED in leading positions), or
- worked for the Ministry for State Security (MfS) (full-time or unofficially).
- Copy of birth certificate
- Copy of the registration certificate
- If available, the certificate of the rehabilitation authority that the administrative decision has been annulled or that it is contrary to the rule of law, or, if there is no such certificate, information on the administrative decision at issue and the reasons why it should be annulled or contrary to the rule of law
- If applicable, documents relating to the administrative decision at issue, for example, letters, notices, judgments
- If applicable, medical documents, e.g. examination findings, discharge reports, medical records, X-rays
- For detailed information on how to file an appeal, please refer to the notification of your application.
- Social court action
State Administration Office
Submit an application for a disability pension to the pension office responsible for your place of residence. The application does not require any special form.
- The pension office will examine your application and, if necessary, request further evidence from you.
- The rehabilitation authority will make the necessary findings on the existence of grounds for exclusion and, if rehabilitation has not yet taken place, on the measure's unlawfulness.
Federal Ministry of Justice (BMJ)
27.01.2023
The text was automatically translated based on the German content.
