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There will always be changes afoot in your professional and private lives, and these may also have an effect on your entitlements from the Vodafone Pension Plan.
Moving, planning a family or separating – do you still think your private life has nothing to do with your company pension? Do not be fooled; it does!
It is important to keep your details up to date so that we can give you information about your company pension and account balance. If you move house, for instance, you can easily enter your new address online in your pension account. You can do this through Vodafone ESS for as long as you are employed at Vodafone.
The basic monthly contribution, which is paid by Vodafone, is calculated based on your eligible income. Your eligible income is your pensionable salary as defined in the applicable benefits plan. If your working hours change, your salary will change, too – the monthly contribution amount will change in line with this. Apart from that, your pension plan will continue as normal even if you work part time – you can deposit additional voluntary contributions and change your investment strategy at any time.
Vodafone’s contributions are based on your gross salary. If you are not receiving a salary, contributions will not be paid into your pension account either. When you take maternity leave, you receive maternity pay from your health insurer – with Vodafone merely making up the difference between it and your normal salary. You do not receive a salary when you take parental leave. This means that contributions are not made to your pension during maternity or parental leave. However, the balance of your pension account will continue to grow in line with the investment funds’ performance.
If you get divorced, there are rules concerning your pension entitlements under the company pension plan. There is legislation that calls for a ‘pension entitlements settlement’. This legislation says that your former spouse is generally entitled to half of the pension entitlements you have accrued during your marriage. Courts can order Vodafone to provide information about an employee’s benefit entitlements and to send them the associated calculations; Vodafone will be obliged to do so in such cases.
Things can change rapidly in your professional life, too, such as if you want to change employer or you are ill for an extended period of time.
If you leave Vodafone before you retire, you will not lose anything – you will keep the full amount of the pension balance you have saved so far. As a result, Vodafone gives you far more entitlements than called for by law.
You can change your investment strategy one last time before leaving us. You will no longer be able to make contributions afterwards. However, the balance of your pension account will continue to grow in line with the investment strategy you have selected most recently – based on fund performance.
When it is time to receive your pension (due to age, disability or death), you can make an informal request for the Vodafone Pension Team to pay out your pension; simply email.
If you fall ill, you will continue to receive your regular salary from Vodafone for up to six weeks. After this period, your health insurer will give you sick pay, and Vodafone may support you with a net supplement. If you receive a sick pay supplement from Vodafone, this will increase your eligible income. Contributions will be paid in as normal once you return to work.
Double up: Protection not just for your retirement, but for the worst-case scenario too – incapacity or death. Provision for risk protects you and your surviving dependants, if you are no longer able to work due to occupational disability or in the event of your death. This is in addition to your pension plan, and is financed by Vodafone.
The risk of disability is real: A quarter of working people in Germany will, at some point, lose some or all of their capacity to do their job. State support for those affected is not nearly enough to secure their standard of living. But as an employee of Vodafone, you do not need to worry. In 2021, we introduced a new and very attractive risk benefit that we can offer to all eligible employees for the first time. If you are unable to work due to disability, you will be entitled to a monthly disability pension of up to 25% of your salary, until you reach normal retirement age. Unlike previously, you do not need to end your working relationship with Vodafone to qualify.
All eligible Vodafone employees are automatically covered for occupational disability for work, so you do not need to take any further action. The pension is paid by Vodafone and the benefit is financed by Zurich Versicherung. Please note that the disability pension is taxed in accordance with the regulations when it is paid out, and that contributions to health and nursing care insurance are also due. If you leave Vodafone, cover will continue for the current policy year and then expire. However, you can privately conclude a follow-up agreement with the insurance company on favourable terms. In this case, you will be exempt from the medical examination and the waiting period.
If you die before you reach normal retirement age, your surviving dependants will be entitled to the assets saved from your Vodafone pension plan. They will also receive an additional risk benefit amounting to approximately one year’s basic gross annual salary. Surviving dependants are defined by law as the following, in the following order: spouse or registered civil partner, cohabiting partner, and children entitled to child benefit. Payments cannot be made to other individuals. If you wish your cohabiting partner to benefit, you need to fill in the relevant form first – you can find it online in the portal.
Vodafone itself may change as a company. Learn here about the impacts that potential company changes could have on your company pension.
Better safe than sorry: to start with, your pension entitlements are protected by a ‘contractual trust arrangement’ (CTA). This means that Vodafone transfers all contributions to Vodafone Pension Trust e.V. every month, and this organisation will take care of your pension benefits if Vodafone goes bankrupt.
Moreover, your pension entitlements also have the best possible legal protection through the Pension Guarantee Association (Pensions-Sicherungs-Verein, PSVaG). If Vodafone goes bankrupt, PSVaG will usually take charge of your pension benefits as soon as they are vested in accordance with the law. You can find more information about the requirements for vesting online. Your own contributions will immediately be secure up to an amount of four per cent of the income threshold, and any voluntary amounts in excess of that will be vested if you have worked at Vodafone for at least two years.
In the event that your employer is acquired in full by another company, nothing will happen to your pension. The full amount of all contributions will be retained.
You will be entitled to have your pension balance paid out as soon as you retire – you are required to be at least 60 years of age, or 62 if you commenced employment after 31 December 2011. You must apply to have your balance paid out, though you do not need to use a specific form.
If you would like to make one-time payments into your pension plan, for example your bonus, holiday pay or Christmas bonus, you have to make that decision before they are paid. It is not possible to sacrifice these payments afterwards. If you have missed the deadline for sacrificing a one-time payment, you should consider making a voluntary monthly contribution instead.
You will automatically be enrolled in the Vodafone Pension Plan. You can change the amount of your voluntary contributions every month. If you do not change anything, the amount of your voluntary monthly contributions will stay the same – until you decide to change your contributions using the portal.