German widow’s pension calculator
Enter your late partner’s pension, the type of widow’s pension and your own income: the calculator shows the amount paid from the fourth month.
Worked through by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · How we calculate
Widow’s pension from month 4
€825
gross, before health and care contributions
| First three months | €1,500 |
|---|---|
| Pension before income test | €825.00 |
| Allowance | €1,122.53 |
| Income deduction | −€0.00 |
| Amount paid, gross | €825.00 |
Step-by-step calculation
- First three months after the death: full pension €1,500.00, no income test (sections 67 and 97(1) SGB VI).
- After that 55 % of the deceased’s pension = €825.00.
- Your income €1,200 gross, reduced by the flat rate (section 18b SGB IV): €1,032.00.
- Allowance 26.4 × €42.52 = €1,122.53. Above it: €0.00, 40% of which = €0.00 deducted.
Estimate under SGB VI and the Income Tax Act as of October 2026, not advice. Only your pension decision letter is binding. How we calculate
A German widow’s pension (Witwenrente) is worked out in three steps. For the first three months after the death (Sterbevierteljahr) you receive the deceased’s full pension, whatever you earn. After that the large widow’s pension is 55 % of that pension, 60 % under the old rules, and the small one 25 % for at most 24 months. Finally your own income is taken into account: it is reduced by a flat rate, an allowance of €1,122.53 a month stays untouched (since 1 July 2026, previously €1,076.86), and 40 % of the rest is deducted from the widow’s pension. An example from the calculator: with a €1,500 pension of the deceased and €1,200 of your own pension, the large widow’s pension stays whole at €825. If the widow instead earns €2,500 gross in a job, €150.99 is deducted, leaving €674.01. All figures are gross, before health and care contributions.
What the calculator checks and what you need to confirm
The calculator assumes there is an entitlement. Under section 46 SGB VI that requires, among other things, a marriage that, as a rule, lasted at least one year, and no remarriage; entering a new registered partnership also ends the entitlement. You get the large widow’s pension if you are raising a child under 18, have reduced earning capacity yourself, or have reached the age limit, which for a death in 2026 is 46 years and 6 months and rises to 47 by 2029 (section 242a). The conditions are set out on the page on large and small widow’s pensions.
The calculation step by step
The starting point is the deceased’s pension, gross and without a reduction, as shown on the pension decision or the annual statement. The pension type factor turns it into the widow’s pension (section 67, old rules under section 255). Your own income is cut by a flat rate that depends on its type (section 18b SGB IV): wages by 40 %, your own German pension starting from 2011 by 14 %, a company pension starting from 2011 by 23 %. The calculator then deducts the allowance, 26.4 times the current pension value of €42.52 (pension value), and counts 40 % of any excess against the pension (section 97).
| Case | Before income test | Deduction | Paid, gross |
|---|---|---|---|
| Large, own pension €1,200 | €825.00 | €0.00 | €825.00 |
| Large, old rules, own pension €1,200 | €900.00 | €0.00 | €900.00 |
| Small, own pension €1,200 | €375.00 | €0.00 | €375.00 |
| Large, wages €2,500 | €825.00 | €150.99 | €674.01 |
| Large, wages €2,500, one child | €825.00 | €55.74 | €769.26 |
| Large, deceased €2,000, own pension €1,600 | €1,100.00 | €101.39 | €998.61 |
The child in the fifth case only counts if it is itself entitled to an orphan’s pension. It lifts the allowance to €1,360.64 and cuts the deduction from €150.99 to €55.74.
Limits of the calculator
It takes one type of income at a time; if you have wages and a company pension, apply both flat-rate cuts separately and add them. If the deceased drew an early pension with a reduction, that access factor stays for the widow’s pension (section 77 SGB VI), so enter the amount actually paid. If death came before the pension started and before 65, a reduction can also apply, which the tool does not compute. The allowance is reset every 1 July with the pension value. Health and care contributions and tax are not deducted; the pension tax calculator estimates the tax. How civil service pensions, self-employed income or assets count is covered in the income test guide. Income from abroad is not part of this tool; the pension insurer’s information and advice centres (Auskunfts- und Beratungsstellen) handle the claim and the exact check.