Dispute over new pension plans: Anyone who pays in a lot will be punished
Created: 01/12/2023 04:57
By: Klaus Rimpel
The economy Monika Schnitzer would like to screw on the pension.
In their opinion, if you deposit a lot, you shouldn’t automatically receive a lot.
Social organizations criticize this demand.
Munich – The Munich economist Monika Schnitzer has sparked a debate about decoupling pensions from wages.
"We should melt particularly high pensions in the future," said Schnitzer of the
Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ)
.
"Anyone who has worked out lavish pension entitlements would then get a little less." So far, pensions have been linked to wages.
"That should change," said Schnitzer.
"Pensions shouldn't rise as much as wages."
Economy: Pensions should be decoupled from wages
According to the economic experts, those who receive a particularly long pension are primarily affected.
"And experience has shown that these are richer people, because higher earners live significantly longer on average and have other sources of income."
In addition, should be redistributed among the pensioners.
"Anyone who pays twice as much into the pension fund should no longer automatically get twice as much out," said the Munich economist.
The proposals are particularly explosive because Schnitzer is the chair of the five economic experts who advise the federal government in the Advisory Council on the assessment of overall economic development.
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Pension in the traffic light coalition: "It will be postponed until it is no longer possible"
Schnitzer is convinced that further steps than previously planned are necessary to secure the German pension system.
"If you want to keep the pension level as planned and at the same time limit the contribution rates, then a lot more money would have to flow from the federal budget into the pension fund," explained Schnitzer in the
SZ
.
The federal government is currently paying 110 billion euros a year for pensions, a quarter of the budget.
"If we let it go like this, the federal government would have to spend more than half of the budget on it in 25 years."
These demands are met with rejection in the traffic light coalition.
The SPD pension expert Martin Rosemann explained the
tz
that seniors are protected by law from a pension reduction: "The constitutionally protected principle of equivalence applies to pension insurance: As a result, the contributions paid must be matched by corresponding benefits."
"It will be postponed until it is no longer possible," said Schnitzer.
But the social association VdK also rejects Schnitzer's demands: "Ms. Schnitzer's proposal sounds like a double pension cut," explained VdK President Verena Bentele.
"In my view, this redistribution among the pensioners does not solve the financing problem in the pension insurance system."
The retirement age has been rising for years – but Monika Schnitzer still fears that without cuts in high pensions the system will collapse.
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VdK boss: The problem is not the pension, but the high pensions
The central problem in the area of old-age security does not lie in the high pensions, but in the sometimes very high pensions, the VdK boss continues.
In any case, only a few hundred seniors would receive a gross pension of more than 3,000 euros.
"These people have been paying for at least 50 years," Bentele said.
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Anyone who has always paid the maximum amount into the pension fund for 45 years will receive around 2962 euros gross or 2636 euros net in 2022.
"It's more the norm for civil servants to get more than 3,000 euros in pension," Bentele continued.
"According to the Federal Statistical Office, in 2022 the average gross pension for pensioners in the public sector was 3170 euros."
Pensioners who have paid the maximum amount for 45 years receive 2,962 euros gross.
Against this background, Bentele calls for a fundamental reform of the pension insurance system, in which all employees, i.e. civil servants, politicians and the self-employed, are included in the pension insurance system: "More contributors who also pay higher contributions lead to more income in the statutory pension system," says the VdK President.
