A1. When would I be registered with the statutory pension system in Austria?
In Austria, almost everyone in gainful employment (including the self-employed) is covered by the mandatory statutory pension provision. Scholarship holders on a post-graduate or post-doc level are usually considered as employees and have full social security coverage.
Pension reforms in the past decades have harmonized the system, meaning that civil servants apppointed after 2004 and those born in or after 1976 are insured in the statutory pension system as well.
The “Pensionsversicherungsanstalt” is the largest pension insurance institution for employees and workers. Pension insurance is not obligatory for persons with an annual income of less than the annual minor employment threshold (these persons have only an accident insurance). In 2019 the threshold was 446.81 Euros per month.