Early retirement
Fast forward and sit back – a bit before everyone else.
Work until you're 67? You could. But you don't have to. You can use your Compensatory Time Account immediately prior to your statutory pension: take a leave of absence, enjoy all the benefits of an earlier retirement and at the same time remain a Fresenius employee – with all the advantages.
Your benefits
Exit professional life early
You can use the leave of absence at a point in time at which you are not yet entitled to a statutory pension – you can therefore retire early.
Avoid pension deductions
You can delay the actual drawing of your pension until you reach standard retirement age. This way you avoid deductions in the statutory pension. Since your contract with Fresenius continues to run until the end of your leave of absence, you are fully covered by the company’s social security scheme during this time. The time counts towards retirement, and your health insurance also remains unaffected.
Result
Your leave of absence salary allows you to bridge gap before you retire while enjoying all the advantages of a continuous employment contract with Fresenius – for executive staff this can last up to 36 months. During your leave of absence, your salary can be between 75% and 125% of your regular salary.
Application: how it works
Plan early
If you would like to request a leave of absence for early retirement, start planning early and ideally speak to your manager or the HR department beforehand. Also apply for an individual pension report from the Deutsche Rentenversicherung. This serves as the basis for further planning. You can then plan your leave of absence in detail with our calculator.
Print and submit
Print the result of your leave of absence plan and submit it to your HR department. Please note the deadlines for submitting your leave of absence request: tariff and non-tariff employees should submit a request 6 weeks in advance for a leave of absence of up to 3 months, or 6 months in advance for an extended leave of absence. Executive staff should speak to their manager or the HR department at least 24 months in advance and submit the request 6 months before the leave of absence, at the latest.
Done!
The HR department takes care of the rest and lets you know within 4 weeks whether your leave of absence request has been approved. You can find further information about taking a leave of absence in the leaflets in the download area.
Final bonus
Statutory pension
Taxes & social security
Final bonus
For tariff and non-tariff employees, Fresenius credits your account with an additional final bonus if your time credit is enough to finance a leave of absence lasting 20 months or more. So your leave of absence is extended again!
The final bonus amounts to 17.5% of the saved time credit if you are a maximum 64 years of age when the leave of absence starts. The maximum amount taken into account is the time credit required for 20 months' leave of absence based on the average monthly remuneration paid over the last 12 calendar months. The final bonus increases up to 25% if you are 63 years old or younger.
Statutory pension
The leave of absence must be planned in such a way that you draw your statutory pension directly afterwards. For this reason it is important to seek clarification on when you are eligible to claim your statutory pension. There are various types of pensions and access requirements. If you take early retirement, i.e. before reaching the standard retirement age, this may also result in a deduction in the statutory pension.
Familiarise yourself with your retirement account, request an individual pension report and get a clear overview. Reports can be obtained from the Deutsche Rentenversicherung.
You can find further information about statutory pensions on its website.
Taxes & social security
Tariff modules and your own contributions are exempt from tax and social security when paid in. Only salary payments during a leave of absence are subject to tax and social security contributions.