Retiring before 67
Three separate old-age pensions in the Social Code lead to retirement before the standard age. They share neither their qualifying period nor their age — and one of them carries no reduction at all.
Three routes, and they do not cost the same
Ahead of the standard retirement age of 67 years, three separate old-age pensions lead into retirement. They differ in their qualifying period, in their age limit — and in whether § 77 imposes a reduction at all.
| Pension | Qualifying period | Reduction per month |
|---|---|---|
| Altersrente für langjährig VersicherteSGB VI § 36 (Übergang: § 236) | 420 qualifying months (35 years) | 0,3 % |
| Altersrente für besonders langjährig VersicherteSGB VI § 38 (Übergang: § 236b) | 540 qualifying months (45 years) | no reduction |
| Altersrente für schwerbehinderte MenschenSGB VI § 37 (Übergang: § 236a) | 420 qualifying months (35 years) | 0,3 % |
“Retire at 63” is not the whole rule
For the long-insured, § 36 Satz 2 allows an early draw after completing the 63rd year, and that number gets repeated everywhere. It is the flat rule — but it only governs the cohorts born from 1964. For everyone before them § 236 Abs. 3 holds its own table, and that table runs the other way: it lowers the age.
| Born | Earliest possible from |
|---|---|
| before 1 January 1948(the row before the table) | 63 years |
| 1 January 1948 – 29 February 1948 | 62 years and 11 months |
| 1 March 1948 – 30 April 1948 | 62 years and 10 months |
| 1 May 1948 – 30 June 1948 | 62 years and 9 months |
| 1 July 1948 – 31 August 1948 | 62 years and 8 months |
| 1 September 1948 – 31 October 1948 | 62 years and 7 months |
| 1 November 1948 – 31 December 1948 | 62 years and 6 months |
| 1 January 1949 – 28 February 1949 | 62 years and 5 months |
| 1 March 1949 – 30 April 1949 | 62 years and 4 months |
| 1 May 1949 – 30 June 1949 | 62 years and 3 months |
| 1 July 1949 – 31 August 1949 | 62 years and 2 months |
| 1 September 1949 – 31 October 1949 | 62 years and 1 month |
| 1 November 1949 – 31 December 1949 | 62 years |
| 1950 – 1963 | 62 years |
| from 1 January 1964(the statute’s flat age limit) | 63 years |
This table runs the opposite way to every other one here: it LOWERS the age. The 1948 and 1949 cohorts step down month by month, and everyone born from 1950 to 1963 may start at 62 — a full year earlier than the cohorts after them, for whom § 36 Satz 2’s flat 63 resumes. The route’s unreduced age is untouched by this: it is the standard retirement age (§ 36 Satz 1).
Which produces the point most summaries get wrong. The cohorts the table’s last row covers may start this pension at 62 years — 12 months earlier than the cohorts after them, for whom 63 years resumes. Telling those cohorts the flat 63 gives them a number that is wrong against them. The route’s unreduced age is untouched by any of this: under § 36 Satz 1 it is the standard retirement age, and the reduction is measured back from there.
Altersrente für besonders langjährig Versicherte: no reduction — not a reduction of nought
This pension requires 540 qualifying months (45 years) and opens at 65 years, two years before the standard retirement age. It is nevertheless not reduced. That is not a waived reduction: § 77 Abs. 2 Nr. 2 Buchst. a reduces a pension “vorzeitig in Anspruch genommen” — drawn early — and § 38 is not an early draw of another pension but an old-age pension of its own with its own age limit. The reducing provision simply never reaches it. “0 % reduction” is a different claim from the one the statute makes.
§ 38 also provides for no early draw whatsoever. This pension has one age limit, and § 236b raises exactly that one:
| Born | Age limit |
|---|---|
| before 1 January 1953(the row before the table) | 63 years |
| 1953 | 63 years and 2 months |
| 1954 | 63 years and 4 months |
| 1955 | 63 years and 6 months |
| 1956 | 63 years and 8 months |
| 1957 | 63 years and 10 months |
| 1958 | 64 years |
| 1959 | 64 years and 2 months |
| 1960 | 64 years and 4 months |
| 1961 | 64 years and 6 months |
| 1962 | 64 years and 8 months |
| 1963 | 64 years and 10 months |
| from 1 January 1964(the statute’s flat age limit) | 65 years |
This pension has ONE age limit, with no separate unreduced and early ages beside it: § 38 provides for no early draw at all. So the table raises the only age there is.
Why 45 years is not 35 years plus ten
Both periods are measured in calendar months, but they do not count the same months. Towards the 35 years, § 51 Abs. 3 counts every calendar month carrying a pension-relevant period. Towards the 45 years, § 51 Abs. 3a counts a markedly narrower set — broadly compulsory contributions from employment, child-consideration periods and certain benefit periods — and it expressly excludes unemployment-related benefit periods in the last two years before the pension starts, unless the employer became insolvent or ceased trading. Two insured people with the same number of months can therefore meet one period and miss the other.
Severe disability: two age limits, three years apart
§ 37 requires 420 qualifying months (35 years) and that a severe disability is recognised when the pension begins. The pension is unreduced from 65 years and may be drawn early from 62 years. § 236a Abs. 2 raises both limits in lockstep.
| Born | Unreduced pension from | Earliest possible from |
|---|---|---|
| before 1 January 1952(the row before the table) | 63 years | 60 years |
| 1 January 1952 – 31 January 1952 | 63 years and 1 month | 60 years and 1 month |
| 1 February 1952 – 29 February 1952 | 63 years and 2 months | 60 years and 2 months |
| 1 March 1952 – 31 March 1952 | 63 years and 3 months | 60 years and 3 months |
| 1 April 1952 – 30 April 1952 | 63 years and 4 months | 60 years and 4 months |
| 1 May 1952 – 31 May 1952 | 63 years and 5 months | 60 years and 5 months |
| 1 June 1952 – 31 December 1952 | 63 years and 6 months | 60 years and 6 months |
| 1953 | 63 years and 7 months | 60 years and 7 months |
| 1954 | 63 years and 8 months | 60 years and 8 months |
| 1955 | 63 years and 9 months | 60 years and 9 months |
| 1956 | 63 years and 10 months | 60 years and 10 months |
| 1957 | 63 years and 11 months | 60 years and 11 months |
| 1958 | 64 years | 61 years |
| 1959 | 64 years and 2 months | 61 years and 2 months |
| 1960 | 64 years and 4 months | 61 years and 4 months |
| 1961 | 64 years and 6 months | 61 years and 6 months |
| 1962 | 64 years and 8 months | 61 years and 8 months |
| 1963 | 64 years and 10 months | 61 years and 10 months |
| from 1 January 1964(the statute’s flat age limit) | 65 years | 62 years |
§ 236a Abs. 2 is a four-column table and its two age columns belong together: the left is the limit for an unreduced pension, the right the earliest possible draw. They step in lockstep, three years apart. The reduction is measured back from the LEFT column, not from the standard retirement age — § 77 Abs. 2 Nr. 1 expressly also names “a lower pension age applying to the insured person”.
For this pension the reduction is not measured from the standard retirement age but from its own unreduced limit: § 77 Abs. 2 Nr. 1 expressly names “the Regelaltersgrenze or a lower pension age applying to the insured person”, and § 37 Satz 1 Nr. 1 states one. The difference is not a nicety — it is two full years of reduction.
What counts as a severe disability is set by SGB IX. We did not retrieve that book for these pages, so whether a particular recognition falls under it is not something this page can tell you.
The reduction is permanent
Where a reduction applies it is 0,3 % per calendar month (§ 77 Abs. 2 Nr. 2 Buchst. a). It does not shrink a transitional period; it reduces the points themselves, and under § 77 Abs. 3 Satz 1 the earlier access factor stays with those points — so reaching the standard retirement age does not restore the pension. § 77 states no ceiling on the total reduction; what bounds it is simply how early each pension opens at all.
Whether you meet any of these qualifying periods is not checked here. What a reduction does to the amount is computed on working out the amount.