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Three older vacationers are resting on a bench at the pier in Prerow
Photo: Jens Büttner / dpa
Pensioners in Germany can expect an increase in their retirement benefits again next year after a zero round in 2021.
"I assume that the lack of increase will be made up to a certain extent in the coming year and that pensioners will get a decent plus in 2022," said the President of the German Pension Insurance Association, Gundula Roßbach, the newspapers of the Funke media group.
How much more it will be, however, will not be known until next spring, because one has to look at the wage development throughout 2021.
It is currently not possible to estimate how the fourth corona wave will affect the economy and the labor market.
However, as far as income is concerned, the statutory pension insurance has so far come through the corona crisis in a stable manner.
One reason for this is that the pension insurance in the pandemic also receives pension contribution payments on short-time work benefits, unemployment benefits and sickness benefits.
Large discrepancy between pensions and civil servants' pensions
82 percent of the statutory pensions amount to less than 1500 euros.
In contrast, 95.1 percent of pensions for federal civil servants are over 1500 euros.
This emerges from a response from the Federal Ministry of Labor to a request from the Left, which is available to the editorial network Germany (RND).
"If 82 percent of all pensions are below 1500 euros, then there is a huge problem," said the parliamentary group leader of the Left in the Bundestag, Dietmar Bartsch, the RND.
In this way, confidence in the statutory pension is dwindling.
"The gap to the civil servant pensions shows a two-class society."
Bartsch called for a "major pension reform" based on the Austrian model.
"All citizens pay in there, including civil servants, the self-employed and politicians." The pensions in the neighboring country are on average 800 euros higher than in Germany, emphasized Bartsch.
In response to the request from the Left, the Federal Ministry of Labor pointed out that the statistics also include pensions that are very low due to short periods of employment, for example.
In contrast, the principle of lifetime applies in the professional civil service;
in addition, many civil servants have a university degree.
kim / AFP / Reuters