If you have worked for multiple employers during your time in Austria, there is a good chance that your severance contributions (Abfertigungsbeiträge) may well have been paid into multiple accounts with different corporate provision funds. Each year you receive a breakdown of the amount that is in each such account. In the case that you were not eligible for a severance payout – e.g. in the case that you choose to leave your employer to move to another one, your existing severance payout is held for the future, rather than there being an option for a pay-out.
A possible simplification of the situation is to have your severance contributions from previous jobs paid into your severance account for your current employer’s corporate provision fund. The process is not automatic, but exists in the case that you have not made any contributions into a severance account for a period of three years. This simplification also ensures that you only have to notify a single corporate provision fund of a change of address in the future.
How do I consolidate my severance contribution accounts?
The Arbeiterkammer has a practical guide in German about how to do this. You just have to fill in the details about your past and present employer and the name of the respective corporate provision funds and send a letter with a copy of an identification document to the corporate provision fund of your previous employer.
Applicable for:
Anyone who is either non-self employed or self-employed and for whom severance contributions are paid in Austria.
Legal Basis (in German)
Lists of corporate provision funds
Single employer pension companies
Multiple employer pension companies
This Financial Bootcamp page was originally inspired by an article that appeared in The Guardian on 4 September 2021. It is part of British in Austria’s “The Guide – Financial Bootcamp”, a series of pages intended to provide information about financial housekeeping. If you have enjoyed it, or wish to comment on it, please use our “Financial Bootcamp” forum.