Wirtschaftsweise Schnitzer considers a pension at 63 to be "wrong" - and is open to the involvement of civil servants
Created: 12/23/2022, 10:50 am
By: Thomas Schmidtutz
Monika Schnitzer: The chairwoman of the Economic Wise Men considers the deduction-free pension at 63 "wrong".
© Imago/Rainer Unkel
The head of the economic experts, Monika Schnitzer, considers the deduction-free pension at 63 to be “wrong”, said the economist with a view to the pension funds and the tight labor market.
Munich – The chairwoman of the Economic Wise Men, Monika Schnitzer, has spoken out in favor of a fundamental pension restructuring.
"We can't afford the pension system much longer," said Schnitzer in an interview with
Merkur.de
from IPPEN.MEDIA.
The federal government already has to support the pension funds with 110 billion euros per year.
"If we continue like this, in 25 years every second euro from the federal budget will go to the pension fund as a subsidy," warned the professor for comparative economic research at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich.
In order to stabilize the pension system, you have to "tweak all the screws," Schnitzer demanded.
The retirement age must be further increased.
"For every year of life expectancy, the retirement age should increase by eight months," explained the economist, referring to a proposal by the German Council of Economic Experts to assess overall economic development.
Economy Schnitzer: linking retirement to life expectancy
According to the current status, the age limit will be gradually raised to 67 years by 2031.
Average life expectancy increases by one year every ten years, said Schnitzer.
This would result in a retirement age of 68 in 2046. In 2061, the corresponding limit would then rise to 69 years.
In addition, the economy pleaded for a rapid increase in pension rates.
In this way, the generation of baby boomers could also make a contribution “who will retire in a few years but have had too few children to finance these pensions”.
In addition, Schnitzer spoke out in favor of flattening out the increase in pensions in the coming years.
This would mean that retirees would continue to start with the same pension level as before.
However, the adjustment of the pension amount under this model would lag behind the increase in wages in the future.
Such an adjustment would primarily affect the wealthy, since they would statistically have a higher life expectancy.
But as a rule they would have taken good precautions anyway, said the newly elected head of economics to
Merkur
.
Schnitzer open to the demand to use civil servants and freelancers for the pension fund
Schnitzer was open to calls for civil servants and freelancers to be included in future pension payments.
This is "indeed worth considering".
However, one should not expect that the pension system would be rehabilitated.
After all, a possible extension of the obligation to pay pension contributions would also result in claims against the pension fund.
The deduction-free pension at 63 introduced in 2014 considers the economic system to be “wrong”.
In addition to the high costs, the development on the labor market also speaks against early retirement without deductions.
Schnitzer recalled that it is currently difficult to find staff, even for simple jobs.
Only a few years ago, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) questioned the pension at 63.
It is important to increase the proportion of those "who can really work until retirement age," Scholz said in an interview with the Funke Group.
Last year alone, 270,000 employees retired without deductions after 45 years of contributions.
But the regulation tears a big hole in the pension fund.
In the meantime, more than three billion euros a month are due for this alone.
