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Widow's Pension Calculator 2026

How much widow's or widower's pension is left each month? The calculator shows the three-month grace quarter, the ongoing pension from month four and how much of your own income is offset.

100% freeNo data storedPension value from July 2026

An orientation, not a decision

This calculator gives you a first, non-binding sense of scale. The actual amount of your survivor's pension is decided solely by the German pension insurance on the basis of your late spouse's or partner's contribution record. This page does not replace pension, legal or tax advice.

The deceased's pension

€

Your own income

€

Your situation

Ongoing widow's pension from month 4

€813.88

Net payout · per month — €928.56 gross

Large widow's pension

55 %

Pension type factor

Months 1 to 3 — grace quarter

€1,402.40

per month

Payout over the first 12 months (net)

€11,532.12

Open-ended — until remarriage

because you have reached the age threshold

What is paid and when

  1. Months 1 to 3 — grace quarter

    €1,402.40per month

    The deceased's full pension, with no income offsetting at all. You can request an advance payment at a post office branch.

  2. From month 4 — ongoing pension

    €813.88per month

    The pension type factor and income offsetting now apply.

Payout by phase

How the amount is built up

Deceased's pension × pension type factor (55 %)€880.00
Child-rearing supplement (§ 78a SGB VI) — 5.454 EP+ €127.55
Widow's pension before offsetting€1,007.55
less offset income− €78.99
Widow's pension gross€928.56
less health insurance (8.75%)− €81.25
less long-term care insurance− €33.43
Net payout€813.88

Income offsetting under § 97 SGB VI

Your gross income€2,200.00
Flat deduction § 18b SGB IV (40.0 %)− €880.00
Countable net income€1,320.00
Basic allowance (26.4 × pension value) — 42.52 €€1,122.53
Allowance€1,122.53
Amount above the allowance€197.47
40% of that is offset− €78.99

Nothing is offset up to a gross income of €1,870.88.

How the pension falls as your income rises

Your gross income per month

What else you should know

  • Application deadline: apply within twelve calendar months of the month of death and the pension is paid retroactively from the date of death. After that it only starts in the month of application.
  • The marriage must generally have lasted at least one year, otherwise a marriage of convenience for pension purposes is presumed. That presumption can be rebutted after an accident or an unforeseeable illness.
  • Remarriage ends the claim. On application you then receive a settlement worth 24 times the last monthly widow's pension.
  • The widow's pension is taxable to the extent it exceeds your personal pension allowance, and subject to health and care insurance contributions. The calculator deducts 8.75% health and 3.6% care insurance (4.2% for people without children).
  • All figures are estimates based on the parameters applying from 1 July 2026. Only your official pension notice is binding.

An orientation, not a decision

This calculator gives you a first, non-binding sense of scale. The actual amount of your survivor's pension is decided solely by the German pension insurance on the basis of your late spouse's or partner's contribution record. This page does not replace pension, legal or tax advice.

Basis: current pension value €42.52 (from 1 July 2026), §§ 46, 67, 78a, 97, 242a and 255 SGB VI, and § 18b SGB IV.

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Guide: understanding survivors' pensions

Large and small widow's pension, the grace quarter, income offsetting and orphan's pension

Calculating the Widow's Pension in 2026: Amount, Conditions, OffsettingFeatured Guide

Calculating the Widow's Pension in 2026: Amount, Conditions, Offsetting

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The Grace Quarter: The First Three Months

The Grace Quarter: The First Three Months

For three months you receive the deceased's full pension with no income offsetting. How the advance payment works and what happens afterwards.

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Income Offsetting: How Much of Your Income Is Deducted

Income Offsetting: How Much of Your Income Is Deducted

Allowance, flat deduction and the 40 percent rule step by step — with worked examples for salary, your own pension and rental income.

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Orphan's Pension: What Children Are Entitled To

Orphan's Pension: What Children Are Entitled To

Half-orphan and full-orphan pensions, the extension to the 27th birthday and why a child's own income usually no longer matters.

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Frequently Asked Questions

For the first three calendar months after the month of death — the grace quarter — you receive your late spouse's or partner's full pension, that is 100 percent. From the fourth month it drops to 55 percent for the large widow's pension and 25 percent for the small one. If your partner received €1,600, that is €1,600 gross at first and then €880 with the large widow's pension. For marriages concluded before 2002 in which one partner was born before 2 January 1962, 60 percent applies instead of 55.

The large widow's pension is 55 percent of the deceased's pension and is paid without a time limit. It requires that you are raising a child under 18, have a reduced earning capacity, or have reached the age threshold — for a death in 2026 that is 46 years and 6 months. Anyone who meets none of these conditions receives the small widow's pension at 25 percent, for at most 24 calendar months. Once you later reach the age threshold or become unable to work, you can move to the large widow's pension.

Since 1 July 2026 the monthly allowance is €1,122.53 — 26.4 times the current pension value of €42.52. Each child eligible for an orphan's pension adds €238.11. What counts is not your gross income but a flat-rate net figure: 40 percent is deducted from employment income, only 14 percent from your own state pension. A gross salary of around €1,870 therefore stays entirely free of offsetting. Only the amount above that is offset at 40 percent against the widow's pension.

The grace quarter covers the three calendar months following the month of death. During this time the widow's pension is calculated with a pension type factor of 1.0, so you receive the deceased's full pension. Your own income is not offset at all in those three months, because offsetting under § 97 SGB VI only starts once the factor falls below 1.0. The idea is to cushion the transition period, when funeral costs, estate matters and ongoing fixed costs all arrive at once.

The pension is not paid automatically; you have to apply. If you apply within twelve calendar months of the month of death, it is paid retroactively from the date of death. After that it only starts in the month of application — lost months cannot be recovered. For the grace quarter you can additionally request an advance, usually paid within a few days. You will need the death certificate, the marriage certificate and both partners' insurance numbers, among other documents.

Remarriage ends the claim at the end of the month of the wedding. You can then apply for a one-off settlement worth 24 times the last monthly widow's pension. If the new marriage is later divorced or annulled, a revived pension from the first marriage can arise — though the settlement is then offset against it. Report the marriage promptly in any case, otherwise repayment demands can follow.

Yes, in both cases. The pension insurance withholds health and care insurance contributions from the gross widow's pension: 7.3 percent health insurance plus half your fund's additional contribution — on average 1.45 percent in 2026 — and 3.6 percent care insurance, or 4.2 percent for childless people aged 23 and over. For tax purposes the widow's pension counts as other income; the portion above your personal pension allowance is taxable. Whether tax is actually due depends on your total income.

The calculator reproduces the statutory rules of SGB VI: the pension type factors from §§ 67 and 255, the 24-month limit on the small pension from § 46, the child-rearing supplement from § 78a, the allowance and the 40 percent offsetting from § 97, and the flat deductions from § 18b SGB IV. It is based on the current pension value of €42.52 from 1 July 2026. What the calculator cannot know is your individual contribution record: deductions, imputed periods, pension splitting or an equalisation from an earlier marriage can shift the result noticeably. Treat the result as orientation — only the pension insurance's official notice is binding.