Pension garnishment in Germany: what you keep

Why the wage table also applies to pensions

German law has no separate table for pensions. For the statutory pension, section 54(4) of Social Code I refers to the rules for earned income: recurring cash benefits under the Social Code are garnished like wages unless expressly protected. For civil-service pensions, retirement pay and similar ongoing payments after leaving employment, such as company pensions, section 850(2) ZPO says the same directly: they are earned income. Survivors’ payments arising from employment belong here too.

Private annuities can fall under this as well. Section 850(3)(b) ZPO covers pensions from insurance contracts taken out to provide for the policyholder or dependent relatives. For all these pensions the table from the 2026 notice applies, with the dependants you actually support.

Here is how a table value comes about, using a €1,850 pension with no dependants: the amount falls in the row starting at €1,850. Deduct the basic exemption of €1,587.40 and €262.60 is left. Seven tenths of that, €183.82, is attachable; the rest and the whole exemption stay with you. With one dependant the exemption rises to €2,184.82, so nothing at all is attachable from this pension.

Which pension figure counts and which pensions are shielded

The gross pension is not the starting point. Under section 850e no. 1 ZPO, amounts that must be paid directly under tax or social law are left out; for pensions these include health and long-term care insurance contributions. Voluntary contributions to continue statutory insurance and customary private health insurance premiums are deducted in the same way. Whatever is paid out after that goes into the calculator.

Some pensions enjoy extra protection. Section 850b(1) ZPO names pensions paid because of injury to body or health and payments from widows’, orphans’, relief and sickness funds made wholly or mainly for support. They start out exempt and are treated like wages only if the court allows it by exception on grounds of fairness. The full overview of protected income is on exempt income.

Pension plus wages, pension in the account

If wages come on top of the pension, each payer first applies the table to its own payment. Under section 850e no. 2a ZPO, however, the creditor can ask the court to combine the pension with earned income. The basic exemption is then taken from the pension first, unless the garnishment is for maintenance, so more of the wages becomes attachable. Multiple incomes works through how large that effect is.

Once the pension is in your account, the table no longer applies; the P-account protection does: €1,590 a month without proof, more with a certificate, for instance for a spouse you maintain. If the pension insurer pays arrears for past months, the back-payment is fully protected up to €500; above that it is checked month by month. Test how a back-payment is protected in the small calculator.

The procedure is explained under back-payments on a P-account; the basics of account protection under P-account.