Author: Thorsten Koop/Location: Berlin
The Constitutional Court (“Bundesverfassungsgericht – BVerfG”) will have to decide about constitutional complaints (“Verfassungsbeschwerden”) regarding deductions from long-term incapacity benefits.
The complainants object to two rulings of the Federal Social Court (“Bundessozialgericht – BSG”) and to section 77 paragraph 2 sentence 1 no. 3 of the Social Code VI (“Sechstes Buch Sozialgesetzbuch – SGB VI”) as amended by the pension amendment of December 20, 2000 (“Gesetzes zur Reform der Rente wegen verminderter Erwerbsfähigkeit – EM-ReformG”) with effect from January 1, 2001.
The article describes section 77 paragraph 2 sentence 1 no. 3 of the Social Code VI as a sub-constitutional law. Subsequently, he examines the constitutionality of the legal provision under particular consideration of article 14 (principle of the preservation of property), article 3 paragraph 1 (principle of equality), and article 3 paragraph 3 sentence 2 (prohibition of dis-crimination of disabled persons) of the Basic Constitutional Law (“Grundgesetz”), and on the principle of protection for reliance on existing law (“Grundsatz des Vertrauensschutzes”).
