The statutory pension insurance is only supported by federal subsidies worth billions.
It is time for the parties to look at solutions.
Berlin - For the upcoming federal election, the topic of pension * is moving back into the focus of the parties.
After all, it has long been recognized that pension payments are turning more and more into a tangible crisis.
Specifically, the problem lies in the fact that the statutory pension insurance in Germany lacks money.
Every month the retirees receive more money than the contributors raise.
This results in the so-called financial gap, which will continue to grow over the next few years.
Pension: Taxpayers pay billions on it every year
So far, the German pension system has been saved by contributions from taxpayers.
If the federal government recognizes an impending financial gap in the pension fund, this is filled with subsidies.
According to the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (BMAS), the federal government's benefits in 2019 amounted to around 93 billion euros.
As
Focus Online
quotes the BMAS pension insurance report from 2020, the "statutory pension insurance 2019 had revenues of almost 326.7 billion euros."
Only around 248 billion were contributions from those with statutory health insurance, the remaining 77.6 billion were subsidized by the federal government.
Pension: Tax subsidies of over 125 billion euros by 2034
This means that the taxpayer finances almost a quarter of the pension contributions.
An example from
Focus Online
makes it clear: According to the German Pension Insurance (DRV), an average pensioner received 989 euros a month in 2020 after deducting health and long-term care insurance costs.
Of this, only 751 euros are financed by the contributor - purely arithmetically, the taxpayer pays the remaining 238.25 euros.
There is no end in sight for the state subsidies.
According to BMAS expectations, the state subsidies to the pension fund should continue to increase until 2034.
It is then calculated with an amount of 125.8 billion euros, which the taxpayer contributes annually to the pension.
Demographic change: almost 35 percent more retirees
Demographic change has long been blamed for this development. As the population ages and there are fewer births, the number of employed contributors also decreases.
Focus Online
figures
make this clear. From 1996 to 2020, the number of retirees rose from around 13.6 to 18.5 million. An increase of 34.7 percent.
It is foreseeable that the trend will no longer reverse.
In response to this, the retirement age has risen gradually to 67 years since 2012.
Those who want to retire earlier have to accept significant losses.
Even the basic pension will then not be enough.
Other solutions are also being discussed.
These include a later retirement age, higher subsidies, expansion of private pension provision or increasing pension contributions.
Pension: are solutions in sight?
According to Focus Online, experts are particularly critical of the demand for a higher retirement age.
This has "only a brief effect from a purely fiscal point of view", is "in real terms a reduction in pensions" and is based on a "distributional value judgment that one can share, but does not have to share."
Solutions for the financial gap are not in sight for the foreseeable future.
However, the experts agree that only a high employment rate and well-paid, secure jobs can relieve the statutory pension insurance in the long term.
At the same time, they are calling for the low-wage sector to be contained, the promotion of employment for women and the immigration of qualified specialists.
Pension: Good news for (almost) all civil servants
The experts believe that including civil servants in statutory health insurance is only partially correct.
If the state as an employer had to pay contributions for civil servants in active service as well as for employees in the private sector, it would have to face significant additional costs.
However, the experts are calling for an end to the civil service of all non-sovereign activities, i.e. some teachers and university lecturers.
This would increase the number of contributors and the pension funds would be relieved.
It will therefore be a great challenge for the future government to find answers to the most pressing questions about pensions.
It remains to be seen whether this will succeed alongside other socio-political issues such as environmental protection and climate change.