In 9 months I will have attained the Swiss retirement age of 64 for women. The SVA office has calculated my base retirement amount (AHV) reflecting my earnings and my 13 years in Switzerland. However, none of the years worked in the EU are included: 14 years in Italy, 7 years in Sweden and half year in Germany. Do I have to request retirement benefits from each individual country? Do these benefits only start at the ordinary retirement age for each country? Or is there a way to have my years worked in the EU counted in the Swiss AHV? The amount I would receive from the 3 pillars in Switzerland is under 2000 SFr per month.

You need to request from each country.

Tom

And you will only get it when you reach the retirement age of that country, unless you want to accept deductions (in some countries)

The minimum AHV/AVS amount is 1'185 chf/month.

Less than 2'000 chf for AVS, 2nd and 3rd pillar combined does seem a bit low.

But, as other posters have stated, you will also get pension from the other countries as well.

If you have 45 years of contributions.

Tom

Correct, sorry forgot to mention that part.

Here you can calculate an estimate on Swiss AVS based on age, salary, contribution years: https://www.acor-avs.ch/conditions

Thanks for the responses!
The SVA office has already calculated my AHV for me: 700 SFr.

Wow that is a lot for those who started work late or took time out to travel for a year or two.


Is there a way for them to make up voluntary contributions for a few years?


In UK the current requirement for full basic state pension is 35 years, though the payment is £175.20 a week, somewhat lower than in Switzerland, where one still needs to pay for healthcare insurance. It does piss me off anyone who might have worked 45 to 50 years same payment.


A few years back the requirement was only 30 years but the payment is lower £134.25 a week. No idea whether any of those who worked 35 years or more, might now be applying for the Current New State Pension. If I was a man it is something I would fight for.


Excuse if slightly off track.

UK pension historically was 40 years, then for a short period (under 6 years) went to 35 years. I was able to buy the 5 missing years in 1 go & I had no gap from when I stopped paying.

This might be helpful for you.

https://www.zas.admin.ch/zas/en/home...tml#-114637917

I know when my husband was applying he received a form from a place in Geneva where he had to provide details of all the countries he worked in.
I think they must have then contacted the relevant authorities in those countries as he subsequently received claim forms from them all.

Once you fill in this form with the details of your work history it is the responsibility of the Swiss Pension people to do the rest as far as I know.

All they do is send your details off to the relevant authorities in the countries in question, you then have to fill out all the forms yourself.
Some of them are more onerous than others, the German one was by far the worst.

Definitely! Hubby, who is German, had someone help him with his application as that was a nightmare to complete

No you do not. You make the application in the country where you are resident.

Not for US social security.

Tom

You fill out the original form in Switzerland, the agency then contacts the the relevant authorities in the other countries, they send they application forms, the applicant fills them in.

You don’t have to contact them all yourself, the agency of the country of residence does that for you, but you do have to complete them yourself.

This applies if you are resident in Switzerland and have pensions in other countries which have an agreement with Switzerland (all EU countries in our case). For other countries you will need to contact them yourself but the OP only has EU countries so it can all be done via the office in Geneva.

thanks fatmanfilms, sorry my question was meant to ask if there was a way to buy extra years for Swiss pension if under 40 years had been paid?

Säule 2 is easy, I think there is a limited time you can pay extra for Säule 1 and that is limited in the amount as well. Maybe invest some money to mitigate the difference in pension?

This is somewhat interesting. Even though I worked in other country before moving to Switzerland I wonder if may opt to buy some additional years of the Swiss AVS. I guess it's not possible to double-contribute for retirement in different countries , though anyone ever enquired about it?

Thanks, I'll check this out. My residence is in Kanton Zurich, not sure if that makes a difference.