Wrong claim

Hi! I worked in river cruises from 2013-2016 for 27 months since we are seasonal. We were under Swiss contracts and our payslip indicates that we had deductions for Old Age & Invalidity Comp. AVS, Unemployement Contribution AI, Min. Occupational Pension Fund And my monthly wages were €1700. I went back to my country (a non EU/EFTA country) last Oct. 2016, I didn't know that I could claim my vested benefits until this year. So I tried to claim it but I think I request a wrong claim. I only got CHF 315 and they emailed me that my vested benefits account is now closed????. Can I still claim my unclaimed benefits/money?

You seem to be confusing two different things:

• The OASI (AVS): Swiss government pension
• Vested benefits: Company pension fund

When you work for a Swiss employer, you pay into both the government pension and your employer's company pension fund. These are two different things.

The vested benefits account you cashed out were from your company's pension fund. If you were between 25 and 34 years old when you worked on the cruise ship, then the contributions to the pension fund would have been 7% of your income. So the amount of 315 francs seems correct based on your 1700-franc salary across 27 months.

But you still have the OASI government pension benefits. The Philippines has a social security agreement with Switzerland that gives you two options:

• You can request reimbursement of the money which you and your employer paid into the OASI. Based on your salary and the required contributions of 8.7%, you should have around 3850 francs of benefits.
• You can choose to remain insured by the OASI until you are 65 years old. Theoretically, you could then claim a lifelong pension, but because you worked in Switzerland for only a short time, your pension would be extremely low. As a citizen of the Philippines, you only receive a pension if your pension would be at least 10% of a minimum full Swiss pension. Otherwise you can claim a one-time cash settlement when you turn 65. In your case, you would likely get the cash settlement. This settlement would likely be much higher than the 3850 whcih you could get reimbursed right now, but you can only get it at age 65.

I recommend you contact the office which deals with Swiss government pensions for foreigners to find out how much you could get reimbursed now, and how much you would get if you wait until age 65. Then you can make an informed decision. Here is the contact information for the government office:

Caisse suisse de compensation (CSC)
Av. Edmond-Vaucher 18
Case postale 3100
1211 Genève 2
www.zas.admin.ch

Because the Philippines has a social security agreement with Switzerland, you may need to file applications through the Philippine social security office:

Social Security System (SSS)
International Operations Division
SSS Building, 3rd Floor
East Avenue
Diliman 1101 Quezon City
Philippines
Tél. (632) 924 78 22
Fax (632) 922 31 73
www.sss.gov.ph