Facts
In this case, it was about an insured person who was entitled to a regular old-age pension. According to the statutory provisions (Art. 39 Para. 1 AHVG and Art. 55quater Para. 1 AHVV), the receipt of the pension can be deferred for at least one year and at most five years. The deferral must be declared in writing within one year of the start of the deferral period.
In his pension application of February 9, 1977, the insured person had left the question about pension deferral unanswered, but had indicated the postal checking account to which he wanted the pension payments to be transferred. Thereupon, the compensation fund assumed that the insured person did not want to make use of the deferral option.
Later, the insured person formally applied for pension deferral in his appeal to the lower instance. It now had to be examined whether he still had the right of choice at that time.
Considerations
The Federal Court concluded that the insured person had waived the pension deferral and forfeited his right of choice through his conduct. Although he may have been misinformed and therefore assumed that he could still file the deferral request later, he should have become aware of the error at the latest upon receipt of the first pension payment and had to refuse acceptance of the pension. Instead, he accepted the pension payments over a longer period of time without objection, which was interpreted as implied conduct equivalent to a declaration of intent regarding the pension deferral.
The Federal Court explained that it would be contradictory to the purpose and intent of the statutory deferral regulations if an insured person could on the one hand draw a pension and on the other hand reserve the…