Social security and pension in Germany

• Health insurance (Krankenversicherung): doctors, hospitals, medication and sick pay after your employer stops paying your salary. You choose a statutory health insurer; see the guide on health insurance.
• Long-term care insurance (Pflegeversicherung): support if you need long-term care. It is run by the same insurer as your health insurance.
• Pension insurance (Rentenversicherung): old-age, disability and survivors' pensions, run by the Deutsche Rentenversicherung.
• Unemployment insurance (Arbeitslosenversicherung): unemployment benefit and job placement support from the Federal Employment Agency.
• Accident insurance (Unfallversicherung): accidents at work and on the way to and from work, and occupational diseases. It is financed entirely by the employer.

Contributions are a percentage of gross pay, split between you and your employer:

• Pension: 18.6 % in total, of which you pay 9.3 %.
• Unemployment: 2.6 % in total, of which you pay 1.3 %.
• Health: a general rate of 14.6 % (you pay 7.3 %) plus an additional contribution (Zusatzbeitrag) set by each health insurer, which you and your employer share equally. The average additional rate for 2026 is 2.9 %, so with an average insurer you pay about 8.75 % in total. Compare the rates of individual insurers in the GKV-Spitzenverband list.
• Long-term care: 3.6 % in total, of which you usually pay 1.8 %. If you are 23 or older and have no children, you pay a surcharge of 0.6 percentage points (2.4 % in total). Parents with two or more children under 25 pay less: 0.25 percentage points less for each child from the second to the fifth. In Saxony the split differs (employees 2.3 %).
• Accident: nothing for you.

With an average health insurer and no childless surcharge, the employee share adds up to about 21 % of gross pay in 2026.

Contributions are only charged up to an income ceiling (Beitragsbemessungsgrenze). Pay above it is free of contributions:

• Pension and unemployment insurance: 8,450 euros per month (101,400 euros per year), now uniform across Germany.
• Health and long-term care insurance: 5,812.50 euros per month (69,750 euros per year).

If your regular pay exceeds 77,400 euros per year (6,450 euros per month, 2026), you are no longer obliged to be in statutory health insurance and may choose private insurance instead.

For low earnings: a minijob earns up to 603 euros per month in 2026 and has special rules. Between 603.01 and 2,000 euros per month (Übergangsbereich, often called midijob) your employee contributions are reduced on a sliding scale, while you are still fully insured. See the guide on minijobs and working students.

When your employer registers you for the first time, the Deutsche Rentenversicherung assigns you a social security number (Versicherungsnummer, also called pension insurance number) and sends you a letter with it (Versicherungsnummernachweis, formerly the social security card). You keep the same number for life.

• Give the number to every new employer. Since 2023 employers can retrieve it electronically, but if that fails you must provide it yourself.
• If you lose it or your name changes, ask the Deutsche Rentenversicherung (free service line 0800 1000 4800) or your health insurer for a new letter.
• It is not the same as your tax ID (Steuer-ID); you need both.

Every month of contributions counts towards a future German pension. To receive an old-age pension at all, you need at least five years of insurance periods (allgemeine Wartezeit). Periods in other EU countries or in countries with a social security agreement can count towards these five years.

The pension is paid from the statutory retirement age, which is rising gradually to 67. Within the EU and under the social security agreements, German pensions are paid to the other country; if you plan to retire elsewhere, ask the Deutsche Rentenversicherung how payment abroad works in your case. Periods in different countries are not merged into one pension: each country pays its own pension based on its own contributions.

Within the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland, European law coordinates social security. Your German contributions stay on your German account, periods in the other countries are added together to meet minimum insurance periods, and each country pays its own share of your pension when you reach its pension age. For the United Kingdom, the EU-UK arrangements after Brexit also allow German and UK periods to be combined for pension claims.

If you live in one of these countries after leaving Germany and were insured here before, a refund is generally not possible, because you have the right to voluntary German insurance; your pension rights are kept for later instead.

Germany has social security agreements with these countries outside the EU/EEA (status October 2026, according to the Deutsche Rentenversicherung): Albania, Australia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Canada and Quebec, Chile, India, Israel, Japan, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, Morocco, North Macedonia, the Philippines, Serbia, South Korea, Tunisia, Turkey, Uruguay and the USA. There is also a secondment-only agreement with China.

These agreements generally allow insurance periods in both countries to be added together to qualify for a pension, ensure that pensions can be paid to the other country, and, for temporary postings, avoid paying contributions in both countries. The details differ by agreement, so check the country brochure of the Deutsche Rentenversicherung. Periods from several agreement countries usually cannot all be combined with each other.

If you leave Germany, you may be able to have your own contributions refunded (Beitragserstattung) instead of waiting for a pension. The main conditions are:

• You are no longer compulsorily insured in the German pension scheme, and
• you are not entitled to voluntary insurance in it. Germans always have this right. Citizens of other countries generally have it while they live in Germany, and depending on nationality and country of residence also in EU/EEA countries or under some agreements, which then rules out a refund, and
• at least 24 calendar months have passed since your compulsory insurance ended, without new compulsory insurance in Germany.

This means a refund is mainly possible for non-EU citizens who move to a country without an agreement that gives them the right to voluntary German insurance. According to the Deutsche Rentenversicherung, a refund can be possible even if you have already completed the five-year minimum period, but this depends on your nationality and residence; in one of its published examples, a US citizen with eight years of contributions could not get a refund.

What is refunded: only the contributions you paid yourself, which for employment is the employee half. The employer's half is not refunded.

Consequence: the refund ends your German pension insurance completely. All pension rights from the refunded periods are lost, including disability protection. You cannot refund only part of your periods.

Before deciding, ask the Deutsche Rentenversicherung for an estimate of your future pension (Probeberechnung) and compare. Apply with the official refund form after the 24 months have passed.