Failure to set a favourable rate of disability pension

The ombudsman inquired into the case of a complainant who objected against the rate of disability pension he received on the grounds of his 3rd degree disability (CZK 4,691). The underlying documents clearly showed that the pension was calculated “ordinarily”. When granting the disability pension, the Czech Social Security Administration (hereinafter the “CSSA”) did not use the statutory favourable (fictitious) per cent rate granted to insured persons who are under 28 years of age and were thus unable to attain earnings in their previous careers that could serve as the base for calculation of the pension. In order for the CSSA to grant such a pension, the time when an insured person was not paying insurance premium in the period between reaching 18 years of age and the arising of disability must not exceed 1 year, where this period also includes studies and the time when the person was registered as a job seeker.

It was thus unclear why the CSSA did not grant the disability pension at the favourable rate (which would currently be over CZK 9,000 a month) when disability pension was granted to the complainant before he reached 28 years of age and where in the aforementioned period he had only 232 days when he was not paying insurance (i.e. less than 1 year).

Nevertheless, the CSSA noted in its statement that there were 652 days when insurance was not paid during the period from reaching 18 years of age to the arising of disability. As this exceeded 1 year, the CSSA believed the complainant was not entitled to a favourable rate of disability pension.   

Based on the above, the CSSA was notified that the complainant’s personal pension insurance sheet showed that he was registered for over 365 days in the register of job seekers without receiving unemployment benefits, and these days were credited for the purposes of pension calculation in the personal pension insurance sheet of 21 January 2011. The CSSA was further informed that it was likely that the complainant was also registered as a job seeker in other periods than from 8 October 2009 as indicated in the certificate issued by the Labour Office in Břeclav on 4 November 2010, which was a part of the file.

In response to the aforementioned steps, the CSSA credited the whole period when the complainant was registered in the register of job seekers and re-calculated the pension to its current amount of CZK 9,516. It also paid to the complainant the outstanding amount of pension corresponding to CZK 248,219.