Hungarian State Treasury

Work accident-related survivor’s pensions are the survivor's pensions paid to the dependants of a person who has died as a result of an accident at work or occupational disease.

Types of accident survivor’s pension:

• work accident-related widow(er)’s pension
• work accident-related orphan's allowance
• work accident-related parental pension

An accident at work is an accident which

• occurs during or in connection with the performance of work in the course of employment,
• it occurs on the way to or from work or on the way to or from home or accommodation (hereafter: accident on the road),
• occurs during the performance of public work,
• occurs while claiming certain social security benefits.

An accident occurring while claiming social security benefits is considered to be an accident which occurs in connection with the appearance of the insured person at the examination or treatment ordered for the purpose of assessing the extent of their incapacity to work, the health impairment and their rehabilitation capacity, as well as during other examinations or treatment necessary for becoming capable of work.

An accident shall not be considered an accident at work if

• it is caused in whole or in part by the person who has suffered the accident being under the influence of alcohol or drugs,
• it occurs during unauthorised work not related to workplace duties, unauthorised use of a vehicle, disorderly conduct at work, or
• it occurred while travelling from home or accommodation to work or from work to home or accommodation, or while travelling by a route other than the shortest route, or during an unjustified interruption of the journey.

An occupational disease is an impairment of health stems from physical, chemical, biological, psycho-social and ergonomic pathological factors relating to the working activity and occupation and occurring during work or work processes, or as a consequence of the worker's exposure to greater or lesser than optimal workload.

An accident at work and occupational disease must be notified to the employer.

The investigation of the occupational nature of the accident or the occupational nature of the disease is performed by the employer as the paying agent or, failing that, by the government office acting as the competent health insurance body for the place where the employer is established.

For more details, see the “Accident at Work" information at the Health insurance section.

Work accident-related survivor's pensions are available to the same category of persons who can claim widow(er)’s pension, orphan's allowance and parental pensions.

Spouses, registered partners, divorced spouses and life partners may be entitled to a work accident-related widow(er)'s pension, children, including children in foster care and adopted children, and in special cases siblings and grandchildren, may be entitled to a work accident-related orphan's allowance, and parents may be entitled to a work accident-related parental pension.

The claim may be accompanied by documents relating to the deceased's previously unrecognised period of service. Such proof may include:

• labour book, certificate of employment, certificate of insurance and health insurance benefits, outworker's book, membership book of agricultural or fishery cooperatives,
• college or university course book, final certificate, diploma, industrial apprenticeship work record book, vocational apprenticeship certificate, certificate of vocational school in health or agriculture, diploma or vocational school student contract.

If a decision recognising the accident at work is available, it must be submitted at the same time as the application for a survivor's pension.

The application form may also need to be accompanied by the following additional forms:

• the supplementary form to provide information on employment and early retirement periods can be downloaded here,
• the supplementary form to provide information on self-employment can be downloaded here,
• the supplementary form for children can be downloaded here.

The administrative time limit is 60 days.

The established pension will be paid by the Pension Payment Directorate of the Hungarian State Treasury within 10 workdays of the decision being issued.

For work accident-related survivor’s pensions, in addition to the entitlement conditions for claiming widow(er)s and orphans, it is sufficient to prove that the death was caused by an accident at work or an occupational disease suffered as an insured person.

In the case of a work accident-related survivor's pension, the survivors of an accident victim are entitled to a work accident-related pension benefit even if the victim did not die as a result of an accident at work during the period for which the accident cash benefit was paid.

The amount of the work accident-related survivor’s pension shall be determined on the basis of the amount of the pension which the deceased was receiving or would have received at the time of death. This is calculated as follows:

60 per cent of the average salary earned shall be increased by the percentage of the number of years of service completed by the deceased, but the average salary on which the survivor's pension is based may not exceed the amount of the average salary. The survivor's pension will be 60 and 30 percent of this amount respectively.

If the deceased insured person was an old age pensioner, the amount to be used as the basis for the accident survivor's pension will be recalculated as above for the date of death.

In the case of work accident-related survivors' pensions, the rate of the survivor's pension and the duration of payment are the same as for widow(er)’s pension, orphan's allowance and parental pensions.

Work accident-related survivors' pension benefits can be claimed from the date of death at the earliest, with a maximum retroactive period of six months.

If the decision recognising the accident as an accident at work has not yet been taken when the application is submitted, and the claim is therefore rejected, or a survivor's pension is established under the general rules, a new application for a work accident-related pension must be made after the accident has been recognised as accident at work by decision. In this case, the work accident-related survivor's pension will be calculated from the date of the first claim, i.e. the date of the original claim.

No appeal may be lodged. If the decision is unlawful, a statement of claim can be lodged against the decision within 30 days to have it reviewed by the court with jurisdiction over the administrative college of the place of residence.

The letter of claim must be lodged, free of charge, with the pension insurance body which took the decision or sent by registered post. After electronic identification, the claim can also be filed electronically on the https://epapir.gov.hu interface. After entry, in the subject group "Jogorvoslat" the case type "Közigazgatási szerv határozatának bírósági felülvizsgálata iránti keresetlevél benyújtása" should be selected.