Retirement at 70: who is for and who is against - and what alternatives there are
Created: 08/10/2022 13:43
By: Patricia Huber
The head of the general metal industry spoke out in favor of retiring at 70 – and sparked a heated debate.
All questions and answers to the debate in the overview.
Munich – The German pension system is on shaky ground.
More and more experts are warning that the pension in its current form will no longer be financially viable.
This is particularly due to demographic change, i.e. the fact that more and more pensioners are coming to fewer and fewer payers.
For this reason, a wide variety of solutions have been discussed in the past.
The idea with the most headwind came from overall metal boss Stefan Wolf.
He advocated raising the retirement age to 70.
Retirement at 70: Who is against it?
This proposal triggered a wave of indignation, and there is also a clearly negative attitude in the government to pensions at 70. Greens parliamentary group vice-president Andreas Audretsch called the initiative by the head of all metals deeply unfair.
The SPD labor market expert Michael Gerdes told the
RND
newspapers on Tuesday: "Anyone who is 67 years old must be allowed to retire."
Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD) also clearly rejects a higher retirement age.
“We have agreed in the coalition that we will not raise the statutory retirement age.
And nothing will change about that,” he clarified just a few weeks ago.
He considers the discussion about a pension at 70 to be a "phantom debate".
Trade unions and social organizations are also opposed to the proposal.
Ulrich Schneider, Managing Director of the Paritätisches Gesamtverband, described the idea as a "announced pension reduction".
The federal government is against retirement at 70. It has other plans for securing the pension fund.
© Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa
Retirement: This is the current regulation
But what is the current regulation on retirement anyway?
In Germany, the retirement age is gradually increasing from 65 to 67.
For those born in 1964 or later, there will definitely be a standard retirement age of 67 in the future.
Economic experts advocate retirement at 70
However, economists consider this to be insufficient.
For example, the economist Bernd Raffelhüschen from the University of Freiburg, in an interview with the
Bild
newspaper, described the proposal by the head of Gesamtmetall as "right and important".
Working until 70 helps against poverty in old age and relieves the pension fund, which is about to collapse, says Raffelhüschen.
Other experts, such as Monika Schnitzer, come to the same conclusion.
also read
Concession to Putin: Erdogan is undermining the West's most powerful sanctions
Pensioners, families and trainees: Now there's money from the state
Ifo boss Clemens Fuest also thinks the proposal to retire at 70 makes sense: "Financing the additional burdens solely through higher contributions or tax subsidies would be grossly unfair to the younger generation and would severely impair employment and growth."
Our free pension newsletter provides you with all relevant news from the economy on a regular basis. Click here for registration.
Retirement at 70: What alternatives are there?
However, apart from a higher entry age, there are other ways to secure your pension.
For example, pension contributions could increase.
Employees would then have to pay more of their salary into the pension fund every month.
Another possibility would be to lower the pension level.
That would mean pensioners receive less money each month.
A third option would be to increase the federal pension subsidy – in which case taxpayers would almost automatically pay more into the pension scheme.
The federal government already pays around 100 billion euros from the federal budget into the pension funds every year.
The nine biggest myths about retirement
View photo gallery
That's what the traffic light parties are planning for retirement
However, the federal government has other plans to support the pension fund.
The coalition agreement of the Ampel parties states: “There will be no pension cuts and no increase in the statutory retirement age.
In order to secure this commitment in a way that is fair for the generations, we will start partially funded statutory pension insurance to stabilize the pension level and pension contribution rate in the long term.”
In addition, this "pay-as-you-go" pension is to be strengthened through the labor force participation of women, qualified immigration and older workers.
So it sounds like older people play a significant role in supporting the pension fund.
What the whole thing should look like in the end has not yet been finally clarified.
(ph)