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Bavaria's pensioners in the poverty trap - those who have less than 600 euros a month

2023-01-27T11:57:40.374Z


The DGB warns that more and more Bavarians are at risk of slipping into poverty due to low pensions. The results of the DGB pension report 2023 are "alarming".  


The DGB warns that more and more Bavarians are at risk of slipping into poverty due to low pensions.

The results of the DGB pension report 2023 are "alarming".  

Munich – The  Confederation of

German Trade Unions

 (DGB) has presented its 2023 pension report.

More than every third pensioner (36.5 percent) and around a fifth of pensioners (20.9 percent) in Bavaria have to make do with less than 600 euros from the statutory pension.

And almost 80 percent of new pensioners and almost 43 percent of new pensioners are at risk of poverty if they have no additional income.

Because their statutory pension is below the poverty risk threshold of currently 1,236 euros.

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Where Bavaria's pension gaps gape - the risk of poverty threshold is currently 1236 euros

These are some of the alarming facts from the pension report of the DGB Bavaria, which is based on figures from the German pension insurance.

"The pension is not only about mathematics, but also about distribution issues," explained Bavaria's DGB boss Bernhard Stiedl.

He called for the pension level to be raised from the current 48 percent to 50 percent in the medium term and to 53 percent of current average earnings in the long term.

"It's not utopian, as some claim," said the DGB boss.

Because in 2000 the pension level was still 53 percent and was only lowered by political decisions.

Retire at 67?

That's the reality

Stiedl considers the discussion about an extended working life beyond 67 to be a pure debate about pension cuts.

Because the pension report shows that the actual retirement age in 2021 was 64 years - although the standard retirement age was 65 years and ten months.

And although every month that you retire earlier means a pension reduction of 0.3 percent.


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DGB pension report 2023: average pension for men in Bavaria.

© DGB Pension Report 2023

Only 14.3 percent of 65-year-olds were still in employment subject to social security contributions in 2021.

Of the 60-year-olds, 57.7 percent still had a job subject to social security contributions.

"That is the reality behind all the demands to work longer and longer," says DGB boss Stiedl.

"People just can't work until they are 65 and older because the working conditions are not age-appropriate."


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DGB pension report 2023: The graphic shows average pensions for women in Bavaria.

© DGB Pension Report 2023

According to a DGB survey, 40 percent of the employees surveyed stated that their workload had continued to increase despite digitization.

"We need a trend reversal towards health-promoting working conditions," demanded the Bavarian DGB Vice President Verena Di Pasquale.


Stiedl complained that employers who do not want to hire older workers or even quit them despite the loudly lamented shortage of skilled workers are also to blame for the low employment rate among older people.


Disability pension: Who gets it in Bavaria?

The number of people applying for a disability pension due to illness will also remain alarmingly high at 23,277 in 2021: men in Bavaria were affected at an average age of 54 and women at 53.

Despite improvements in credit periods, recipients of disability pensions are at particularly high risk of poverty.

Men received an average disability pension of 936 euros per month, women 891 euros.

The most common diagnosis of reduced earning capacity is a mental illness (44.5 percent for women and 32.2 percent for men).

Intergenerational justice: Bavaria demands strengthening of company pensions

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Pension – Bavaria's DGB boss sees Austria as a role model

Bavaria's head of the DGB sees Austria as a role model, where the average monthly pension is 700 euros higher than in Germany.

The reasons for this are that civil servants, the self-employed and politicians also pay into the pension there and employers are burdened more heavily.

In addition, the pension contribution rate of 22.8 percent is higher than in Germany (18.6 percent).

According to Stiedl, Germany is threatened by a growing problem of poverty in old age, since the proportion of low wages is "exorbitantly high" here.

This mainly affects women.

The result: The already high "earnings gap" between the sexes (men earn 21 percent more than women in working life) grows into an even larger "pension gap" in old age: According to the DGB pension report, the average pension amount for new pensioners in Bavaria is 1264 34 percent more than that of new pensioners, who only get 833 euros (as of 2021).

Millions of German pensioners are currently living abroad.

But very few people are drawn to far away places.

The most popular is even a German neighboring country.

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2023-01-27

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