Full disability pension: This is how those affected fight for their rights!

Full disability pension: This is how those affected fight for their rights!

In a groundbreaking decision on June 11, 2025, the social court in Karlsruhe made it clear that people with partial disability can be entitled to a full disability pension if the part-time job market proves to be insurmountable for them. This decision could affect many people in Cologne and beyond who are no longer able to work in their traditional job due to health problems. How pension notice24 reported, the plaintiff is a trained dental technician who has been permanently unable to work since December 2020 due to a severe depressive disorder and somatoform pain disorder. Despite numerous attempts at rehabilitation and therapy, there was no option for her to return to her job.

An application for a pension due to reduced earning capacity was initially rejected because the pension insurance considered her capable of working for more than six hours a day. However, the plaintiff, who demonstrably suffered from severe limitations, sued against this decision, supporting her argument by pointing out that she neither found an adequate job on the part-time job market nor had any hope of getting one.
The court finds that if a part-time job is not realistically available and the existing ability to work is between three and less than six hours a day, this does not exclude the right to a full disability pension.

Relevant judgments on disability pensions

Another relevant case came before the Rostock Social Court on September 26, 2023. This plaintiff, born in 1966, had been unable to work since January 2020 and had already applied for a full disability pension in January 2021. Her employment formally ended in March 2023, and she also had to contend with the rejection of her pension applications because it was believed that she was supposedly capable of working three to less than six hours a day. But here too the argument continued in a similar way: her mental and orthopedic illnesses did not allow a suitable part-time job to be available. Thanks to the court's positive decision, the plaintiff finally received the full pension due to the fact that the part-time job market was either closed to her or simply did not provide space to adequately realize her performance. DGB legal protection emphasizes that these decisions are in line with the principles of the Federal Social Court.

Another example can be found in the most recent ruling by the Hessian State Social Court, which shows that the labor market is not simply considered closed if the person concerned has limited health but has a job. A draftsman who was no longer able to practice his profession due to mental illness was not offered a job that was compatible with his suffering. The court found that, even if his tenancy was suspended due to collective agreement regulations, this did not relieve anyone of the obligation to assess his situation fairly in the circumstances and the reduction in working hours required by the pension insurance was unacceptable. The argument of not being able to find adequate employment in a closed labor market was also recognized here, which indicates great importance for many in a similar situation. Social Justice.de sets out the principles that allow the inability to work to be assessed as relevant to pension entitlement.

In summary, it can be seen that numerous working people with health restrictions are often faced with the challenge of finding a suitable place in the labor market. The judgments prove that participation in working life is not just a question of health, but also depends significantly on the availability of suitable jobs. For many, this gives them the opportunity to receive a full disability pension, even with partial disability, if it is clear that there is no suitable job in sight.