Pensioners will receive a significant pension increase from July 1st. A table shows how much more money they will receive from the pension increase in summer 2024.
The traffic light coalition had assumed a pension increase of 3.5 percent before the announcement. The pension adjustment is "above four percent for the third year in a row. The statutory pension will now be stabilized through the reform of Pension Package II. It is possible thanks to a strong labor market and good wage agreements, which are taken into account in the decision to adjust pensions. "Work is worth the same in East and West when it comes to pensions," said the Labor and Social Affairs Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD). "Good news for pensioners" in the summer of 2024 will be above inflation for the first time in two years. It will be the first nationwide increase, 34 years after German unification, the minister said. The pension increase in summer 2024 was not spared from criticism after it was announced. Bundestag member Sahra Wagenknecht was particularly critical in this context. Despite the pension increase in 2024, she pointed to the significant loss of purchasing power in recent years. "And more and more old people have to radically limit themselves or work at food banks," she said. The BSW boss described how the increase came about as "hardly understandable.' It still lags behind wage developments, even though the purchasing power of wages has been falling for years. The economist Martin Werding sees one group in particular as being "most burdened," while the police union (GDP) is up in arms against Heil’s ideas about having civil servants pay into the pension fund, as is the case with pensions in Austria. The increase is a little more than the current inflation, but it is still a disappointment for the 21 million pensioners because food and energy have become extremely expensive.