Hungarian State Treasury

The payment of an old age pension, benefits prior to retirement age, service benefit for armed forces, life annuity for dance artists, transitional annuity for miners must be suspended if the person entitled to benefits is in one of the following situations: 

• civil service relationship,
• healthcare service relationship,
• service relationship of administrative staff of law enforcement bodies
• army civilian personnel relationship,
• government service relationship,
• service relationship with the tax and customs authority,
• political service relationship,
• commissioner’s relationship,
• public service relationship working as a public official or a case officer ,
• judge’s service relationship,
• service relationship in the judiciary,
• service relationship of prosecutors,
• professional service relationship provided for in the Act on the Service Relation of the Professional Staff Members of Law Enforcement Bodies and Organizations
• professional and contracted members of the Hungarian Armed Forces.

During the period of suspension, the person concerned shall continue to be considered an old age pensioner or a person receiving a benefit.

The establishment of an employment relationship listed in the legislation must be notified by the person receiving a benefit to the Pension Payment Directorate immediately after the establishment of the relationship, but within 15 days at the latest. The 15-day time limit starts from the date of the establishment of the employment relationship, even if the date of commencement of employment is later.

Failure to comply with the obligation to notify may render the person receiving a benefit liable to repay the entire amount of the benefit unduly paid. The obligation to notify the establishment of a legal status is not waived for persons who have previously notified a suspension in their employment because of the amount of earnings or income they have earned.

If the old age pension is established during the period of employment in the public sector, it must be suspended from the date from which the benefit was established. For the above reasons, the existence or establishment of a legal relationship must be notified to the pension determination body at the time the claim for an old age pension or benefit is submitted.

If you are already in receipt of a benefit and subsequently establish a legal status in the public sector, the payment of your benefit must be suspended from the first day of the month following the month in which the legal status was established.

The benefit can be paid again if you can prove that your employment has been terminated. In order to receive the benefit again, you must attach to your application to the Pension Payment Directorate a certificate of termination of employment or a certified copy thereof.

The reinstatement shall be effected from the first day of the month following the certified date of termination of employment.

Any person who is employed in the public sector by a social, child protection or child welfare service provider, institution, network or public education or vocational training institution is exempt from the suspension of payment on request.

The person concerned must apply for exemption from the suspension of the payment of benefits to the pension paying agency.

The application must be accompanied by a declaration from your employer stating whether it is a social, child protection or child welfare service provider, institution, network or public education or vocational training institution, and details of the existence of the legal relationship and the date of its establishment (termination).

The payment of benefits may not be suspended when a statutory employment relationship is established, even for persons whose status as a civil servant is not by appointment but by election or public mandate (e.g. mayor, Constitutional Court judge).

The fact that a person receiving a benefit enters into a contract of appointment does not result in the suspension of payment of the benefit. (A contract of assignment is a legal relationship governed by the Civil Code.) 

In the case of a legal relationship established abroad which is equivalent to employment in the public sector under Hungarian rules, these suspension rules do not apply.

The Pension Payment Directorate decides ex officio by decision whether to suspend or the recovery of benefits received without legal basis, as a result of failure to notify the person receiving a benefit or on the basis of information provided by the state tax authority.

Reinstatement is also decided by the Pension Payment Directorate, within public proceedings.