Facts
A., born in 1967, married, was employed as a kitchen assistant at company Y. from April 2, 1996 and was insured for occupational pension benefits with pension fund X. On April 7, 2004, she applied for a disability pension with the Disability Insurance (IV). The IV office determined a degree of disability of 60% and, by decision of January 13, 2005, awarded A. a three-quarter disability pension and three child's pensions, effective June 1, 2004. The employer company terminated the employment relationship as of July 31, 2004.
In a letter dated June 8, 2005, the pension fund informed A. that for the period from August 1 to December 31, 2004, she was entitled to a 60% disability pension of CHF 584 per month plus three child's pensions of CHF 134 each per month. This pension entitlement would be reduced to CHF 0 based on the new regulations that entered into force on January 1, 2005 and the reasonably achievable earned income of CHF 17,618 per year from January 1, 2005.
Considerations
The Federal Supreme Court upheld the pension fund's appeal. It states that in determining the reasonably achievable earned income within the meaning of Art. 24 para. 2 sentence 2 BVV 2, the disability income determined under disability insurance law should generally be used as a basis. This usually corresponds to the reasonably achievable earned income. However, the insured person has the right to be heard with regard to subjective circumstances and actual labor market opportunities that make it difficult or impossible to achieve a residual earned income corresponding quantitatively to the disability income. In doing so, the insured person has a duty to cooperate by asserting, substantiating and, as far as possible,…