How shall I arrange my social security?
Austria possesses a good public social insurance
system with local public carriers ("Gebietskranken-
kassen") in all nine federal provinces. Social
security is compulsory in Austria, especially for
employment contracts. The contributions are spread
into a health, accident, pension and unemployment
insurance.
As a researcher with an employment contract you are automatically insured by your employer. You will then get a national social security number, which you will need to make use of health insurance services. More than half of all doctors in Austria have a contract with the Gebietskrankenkasse. The insurance with the Gebietskrankenkasse covers costs for medical treatment by doctors and institutions which have a contract with the Gebietskrankenkasse. Treatment by a doctor who has a contract with the Gebietskrankenkasse is paid directly by the Gebietskrankenkasse upon presentation of your "e-card", an electronic card covering your insurance details. Necessary medicine can be bought upon prescription in pharmacies against payment of the prescription fee of EUR 4.80 (as in 2009) per item.
The e-card is an electronic chip card which replaces the formerly used health insurance voucher for visits to the doctor. This chip card is equipped with the name, title and social insurance No. of the card owner and contains information about his/her insurance status (e.g. the responsible health insurance institution).
A statutory service fee of EUR 10 per year is collected from the employer for the e-card.
Spouses can be insured against payment of an additional fee, children can be insured free of charge with the Gebietskrankenkasse.
Information on the e-card by the Gebietskrankenkasse
Link to the information about social insurance of the Federal Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Consumer Protection
General multilingual information on social insurance
Link to "Well insured in Austria" (Version 2009)
Cross-national agreements on social security (pdf; in German only)
Here you find a list of the countries, Austria holds cross-national agreements on social security with. Please note that agreements differ in type and scope depending on the respective country. Information in germain only.
What does the pension scheme in Austria look like?
As an employee in Austria you will be embedded in the pension scheme as it is a part of the social security system to guarantee a financial base also after the end of the employment period as you reach the retirement age. The typical retirement age in Austria is 65 years. The social pension scheme besides retirement pension also includes reduced capacity to work pension, early retirement pension (depending on certain regulations and periods of insurance), rehabilitation measures and health care.
All these pensions are mainly financed by the working population and automatically deducted from the salary. How large your pension will be, depends on the number of years you have worked.
Additionally to the state pension scheme you can conclude additional pension security trough private insurance companies. This is made on an individual basis and the competition between the institutions with different conditions is quite high.
All EU and EWR states have international agreements and guarantee that you don’t lose your pension although you move from country to another. Even if you have just stayed a limited time in Austria, the pension that was collected here will also be taken into consideration.
Your pension scheme contributions will remain valid in every country in which you have been covered and have paid contributions, until you have reached pensionable age according to the laws of the respective country.
More information can be found under:
http://www.help.gv.at/Content.Node/137/Seite.1370000.html#calculations
The Austrian Pensionskasse System (pdf)
Publication of the FMA - Austrian Financial Market Authority
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