The community wanted to save on social assistance: the federal court banned PF payments 63 years ago

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The obligation to pay out acquired benefits early at the age of 60 to avoid becoming dependent on social assistance is not always permitted. The Federal Court has decided this.

In this specific case, a 64-year-old man received social assistance in his municipality of Rümlingen BL from 2013. The authority stopped the services in 2022 and demanded about R78,000 back. She justifies this by stating that the person concerned has concealed his allocated benefit account.

Federal court approves complaint

According to the authorities, he could have received this credit in April 2019 at the age of 60, which would have meant that he would no longer have to rely on social assistance benefits. The government council and subsequently the subdistrict court of Basel-Landschaft confirmed the decision. The Federal Court approved the data subject’s complaint in a ruling published on Tuesday.

In its considerations, it answers the question whether the complainant wrongly received social assistance benefits because he would have been obliged to withdraw his acquired capital as soon as possible, i.e. from April 2019, five years before reaching the regular retirement age.

When you retire, all the money is gone

In principle, social assistance is governed by the principle of subsidiarity, the court explained. Support would therefore only be provided if a person in need cannot help themselves or if help from a third party is not available or is not available in a timely manner.

According to the guidelines of the Swiss Conference for Social Welfare (Skos), the protection of funds from occupational pension schemes (pension protection) generally takes precedence over the principle of subsidiarity until an AHV pension is received.

An obligation to withdraw pension savings at the age of 60 cannot be categorically excluded. However, it would not be compatible with the pension law purpose of these funds if the vested benefits paid had already been fully used up at the time the AHV was received, the Federal Court wrote.

Relatively only from the age of 63

An obligation to early withdrawal of acquired benefits is therefore considered disproportionate if there is a risk of a new decline in social assistance before reaching the age of 63 due to early withdrawal of the AHV pension.

According to the Federal Court, the basis for calculating the assumed consumption of the acquired benefit capital is the need assumed when calculating the additional benefits. It is higher than the social security requirement.

In the present case, it appears that the acquired benefit of approximately 100,000 francs after tax deduction, if he had retired at the age of 60 and had annual expenses of approximately 40,000 francs, would not have been sufficient to cover the AHV pension. to take. already at the age of 63.

The social services of Rümlingen would therefore not have been entitled to oblige the person concerned to withdraw the benefits granted in advance. He has legally received social assistance benefits from 2019 and this cannot be reclaimed. (Ruling 8C_333/2023 of February 1, 2024)

(SDA/sf))

Source:Blick