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Hubertus Heil (SPD): "It remains true that you can call it a day after 45 years of insurance."
Photo: Bernd von Jutrczenka / dpa
Do you only retire at 68 or 70?
Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD) is skeptical of such considerations.
“We already have one of the highest retirement ages in Europe.
It is still true that you can end after 45 years of insurance, "said the SPD politician of the" Rheinische Post ".
In response to the suggestion that the retirement age would have to continue to rise beyond 67 years after 2030 in view of the demographics, he said: “Some people tell each other, but they have no view of the reality of many people's lives.
To say to a nurse, a steel worker or a warehouse clerk: 'You work until you are 70' is cynical. "
Heil also said that it had been ensured that the pension level initially remained stable until 2025.
According to the newspaper, he was referring to the value of 48 percent.
"I want us to extend this stop line until 2040," said the minister.
Suggestion: Link the age of entry to life expectancy
In June, an advisory body to the federal government proposed linking the retirement age to general life expectancy.
By around 2042 it will increase to 68 years.
In an expert opinion it was said that the government had imposed additional burdens on the pension fund with numerous measures - for example with the stop lines for the pension level, the contribution rate, with additional benefits such as maternal and basic pension as well as with the pension at 63. The pension fund was threatened with "sudden increases Financing problems from 2025 ".
SPD chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz was indignant about the report in June.
It is not only wrongly calculated, but also antisocial, what is proposed there.
In June, Heil proposed that the self-employed be included in the old-age insurance system in order to stabilize the pension funds.
However, the advisory committee not only suggested linking retirement to life expectancy, but also made two proposals aimed at pension level.
This will inevitably decrease, according to the report, but the basic idea of a stop line, i.e. a lower limit for the pension level, could still be implemented.
One approach would therefore be to keep the pension level of 48 percent upon entry, but no longer calculate further increases according to how much wages rise - but the prices.
Another consideration would be the introduction of a base in which only part of the accumulated earnings points would be converted directly into pension payments.
A demographic discount would be deducted from the remaining points.
wbr / rtr
