Heirs must pay for supplementary benefits of deceased testators

Parliament decided in March that from 2021 supplementary benefits must be reimbursed under certain circumstances after death. These supplementary benefits must be borne by the heirs in each case, provided the value of the entire estate exceeds CHF 40 000. The amendment is contained in Article 16 of the Law on Supplementary Benefits. 

Supplementary benefits are used when a person’s pension, consisting of AHV and BVG or IV pensions, is not sufficient to secure his or her existence. Entitlement to these supplementary benefits is provided for at constitutional level. Under the new regulation, for the first time, a legally drawn benefit from the social insurance system will be subject to reimbursement. Furthermore, according to the new Art. 9a ELG, persons with net assets of more than CHF 100,000 will no longer be entitled to supplementary benefits in the future. For married couples, this asset threshold is set at CHF 200 000. After all, owner-occupied properties are not considered part of the assets, so that these persons do not have to move out of owner-occupied properties. This means that the Confederation recovers 150 million annually in compensation payments. 

Article 13 of the Supplementary Benefits Act now stipulates that legally received benefits “are to be refunded from the estate after the death of the recipient”. This reimbursement obligation is similar to an expropriation, as it leads to a partial abolition of the legal right of inheritance.