You will receive the form for the life certificate every year together with your pension adjustment notification if you, as a beneficiary of a Germany pension,
live abroad
live in Germany and have a bank account abroad
These will be machine-generated and sent in the period from June to July 2026.
Digital proof of life is also available. If you should use this procedure and have already successfully carried it out, you no longer have to additionally submit the life certificate form by letter mail. All necessary documents (including the cover letter for digital proof of life) are enclosed in your pension adjustment notification.
In this case, you will be sent several forms with different postal settlement numbers and postal pension numbers for the 2026 life certificates or the 2026 Digital Life Certificate (DLN) letter with your pension adjustment notification.
Please provide all required proofs of life. To do this, you can either
complete all forms for the life certificate 2026 , have them confirmed by an authorized institution, and return the originals by letter mail
or
provide the 2026 digital proof of life for each pension
Important note: Paper-based life certificates may not be returned by e-mail or fax.
If you have received a pension adjustment notification without the 2026 life certificate form and without a letter regarding the 2026 digital life certificate (DLN), a life certificate is not required this year.
Note:
A life certificate generally is not required in the following countries, with which we are electronically networked: Austria, Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Proof of life may nonetheless be required in some cases. In that case, you will receive all necessary documents together with your pension adjustment notification.
a) The life certificate is sent to you by letter mail
Please sign the life certificate yourself in Section A2 and have it confirmed in Section B by an authorized institution.
The following institutions are regularly authorized for certification:
All public authorities such as police or municipalities (registration offices, mayor’s offices)
German representatives abroad (embassies, consulates)
Financial institutions
Health insurance providers
Hospitals
Notaries
Parish offices
Polyclinics
Rabbinates
Pension insurance providers
Red Cross
In addition, you will find country-specific institutions that are also authorized at www.rentenservice.de/LB/FAQ
Please also review the information in Section A1, where you will find your personal data. If this data is correct, you do not need to take any further action in this section. If it is no longer correct, please provide us with the correct data in the appropriate field.
Then please return the original by letter mail to the following address (use the return envelope enclosed in your pension adjustment notification for this purpose):
Deutsche Post AG
Niederlassung Renten Service
04078 Leipzig
Germany
A confirmed life certificate is a prerequisite for continuing to receive your German pension. We will stop the payment if we do not receive the form in time by 25 September 2026.
b) You have not received the pension adjustment notification by the end of July 2026
If you have not received the pension adjustment notification by 31 July 2026, please contact the Pension Service (you will find the exact contact details at the end of this information) or your relevant pension insurance provider and find out whether a life certificate is required this year. If you have confirmation that a life certificate is required this year, you can find the appropriate form on our website: www.rentenservice.de/LB/Formblatt
Please complete the life certificate, sign it personally, and have it confirmed by an authorized institution.
The following institutions are regularly authorized for certification:
All public authorities such as police or municipalities (registration offices, mayor’s offices)
German representatives abroad (embassies, consulates)
Financial institutions
Health insurance providers
Hospitals
Notaries
Parish offices
Polyclinics
Rabbinates
Pension insurance providers
Red Cross
In addition, you will find country-specific institutions that are also authorized at www.rentenservice.de/LB/FAQ
Please then return the original by letter mail to the following address:
Deutsche Post AG
Niederlassung Renten Service
04078 Leipzig
Germany
A confirmed life certificate is a prerequisite for continuing to receive your German pension. We will no longer be able to make the payment at the end of October and will therefore stop if we do not receive the form in time by 25 September 2026.
c) The pension beneficiary is unable to write
In the event that the pension beneficiary is unable to write, confirmation of this fact must be provided in Section C1 of the life certificate .
d) The pension beneficiary is unable to visit an authorized institution in person
If the pension beneficiary is unable to visit an authorized institution in person, confirmation of this fact must be provided in Section C1 of the life certificate . Additionally, the name of the person who visited the authorized institution on behalf of the pension beneficiary must be given in Section C2.
e) The pension beneficiary is deceased
We are very sorry that you have lost a loved one and do not wish to cause you any more inconvenience than necessary.
If you or the funeral directors have already notified us that the person entitled to the pension has died, then your notification and our dispatch of the adjustment, including the request for the annual proof of life, have overlapped. You do not need to do anything else. If this is not the case, please complete the “Change Notification: Life certificate” or fill out Section D “Notification in the event of the death of the pension beneficiary” and send it to:
For pensioners who reside in Germany
Deutsche Post AG
Niederlassung Renten Service
13497 Berlin, Germany
For pensioners who do not reside in Germany
Deutsche Post AG
Niederlassung Renten Service
13496 Berlin, Germany
You will find the form here: Change Notification.