• You will receive a widow's or widower's pension from the Agricultural Pension Fund if the deceased person has completed the minimum insurance period (waiting period) of 5 years.
  • For the waiting period of 5 years, all compulsory contributions as well as voluntary contributions are taken into account which have been paid to the agricultural pension fund or which are deemed to have been paid. As a rule, contributions for periods before 01.01.1995 are only taken into account if they have been paid without interruption.
  • The waiting period of 5 years is fulfilled early if the insured person died as a result of an accident at work or an occupational disease (insured event) and was subject to compulsory insurance at that time.
  • If a pension equalization was carried out in favor of the deceased, the transferred entitlement is converted into waiting period months.

Periods from other pension schemes

• Periods from other pension schemes, e.g. periods in the statutory pension insurance scheme, can also be counted towards the waiting period if the deceased paid contributions to the LAK for at least one month.
• If the third-party periods overlap with those of the LAK, the third-party periods cannot be credited at the same time.
  • This also applies if the deceased was exempt from compulsory insurance to the old-age pension fund as an entrepreneur during the same period.
  • An exemption from compulsory insurance as an assisting family member, on the other hand, does not prevent third-party periods completed during this period from being taken into account.

The following periods from other pension schemes can be credited:

• Compulsory contribution periods in the statutory German pension insurance and equivalent periods in the social insurance of the former GDR,
• Periods of exemption from insurance in the statutory pension insurance, for example as a
  • civil servant
  • judge
  • professional or temporary soldier, and
  • as any other person covered by a civil service pension scheme,
• Periods of exemption from compulsory insurance in the statutory pension insurance, for example
  • employees and self-employed persons who belong to a professional pension scheme;
  • teachers and educators at private schools, if there is coverage similar to that of a civil servant,
• certain foreign periods under supranational and intergovernmental law.

Other general requirements:

• You have not remarried.
• You had been married or a civil partner for at least one year at the time of death.
  • Exception: Sometimes it is sufficient if you were married for less than one year. This applies, for example, if your partner died in an accident.
  • If you remarry, your widow's or widower's pension will end.

You can receive the widow's or widower's pension if you reach

• reach the current age limit:
  • Age limit at death in 2021: 45 years and 10 months.
  • This age limit will gradually increase to 47 years by 2029.
• have reached the current age limit or
• are incapacitated for work or
• are raising their own child or a child of the deceased under the age of 18, or
• are caring for a disabled own child or child of the deceased, regardless of age.

You may be entitled to a widow's or widower's pension under the old law if

• your partner died before 01.01.2002, or
• you married before 01.01.2002 and
• your partner was born before 02.01.1962.

In these cases, you can receive the pension even if you were

• were married for less than 1 year.

If your marriage was divorced before 01.07.1977, under certain conditions you can also receive

• even if you have already divorced or
• in the case of a renewed marriage or civil partnership that has been dissolved again

receive a special widow's or widower's pension.

You can receive a so-called widow's or widower's pension after your penultimate spouse if you

• remarried or entered into a civil partnership after the death of your former partner and
• the new union has now been dissolved or terminated.