Time spent raising children increases the pension. But they are usually attributed to the mother. A father has now filed a lawsuit against this calculation.
A father from southern Hesse has sued the Federal Social Court because the pension insurance did not fully credit him for the time spent raising children for his daughter.
Father feels discriminated against
In the case under discussion, the father and mother initially lived together with their daughter, who was born in 2001. The father was employed full-time, the mother only began working part-time shortly before her daughter’s sixth birthday. The mother moved out in 2008 and has lived separately from father and daughter ever since.
The pension insurance provider only recognized the time after the mother moved out as parenting time for the father. In previous years he was denied this on the grounds that there had been a shared upbringing that was attributed to his mother.
The father now argues that this “catch-all rule” discriminates against him based on his gender. In the case of joint supervision, however, half recognition would be fair. The underlying role and family image no longer corresponds to social reality. The Federal Social Court must now decide whether the current rules are constitutional.
