Finance Minister Christian Lindner wants to support the pension funds.
To this end, the Liberal is pushing ahead with the introduction of a share pension.
What is at stake, where possible pitfalls lie.
Munich – Private provision for old age is becoming more and more important – even if the statutory pension is still the main source of income for most people in old age.
With the stock pension, there will soon be another building block for retirees that supplements private provision or company pensions.
Since mid-January, Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) has been campaigning more and more for stock rents, which his ministry now calls “generational capital”.
What is planned for the share pension and what is still unclear.
An overview
Why should there be another building block for pensioners at all with the share pension?
That's because of the demographics.
There are more and more old people and fewer and fewer young people.
As a result, this also means that fewer and fewer contributors are faced with more and more pensioners.
The state already subsidizes the statutory pension fund with a good 100 billion euros every year - and the trend is rising.
Experts keep pointing out possible starting points for strengthening pension funds.
A possible participation of civil servants in the pension funds is no longer taboo.
But the traffic light coalition does not want to cut pensions or increase the retirement age.
At the same time, the contributions should not increase too much.
The share pension agreed in the coalition agreement is intended to help achieve all of these goals.
What exactly is stock annuity?
The plans provide for a fund that the federal government will fill with share capital.
A foundation under public law is to manage the money and, above all, invest it profitably - in shares, among other things.
The returns accrue to the statutory pension insurance;
the federal government would compensate for possible losses.
Finance Minister Lindner would like to transfer the investment decisions to Kenfo - this foundation manages the fund for financing the interim and final storage of nuclear waste.
This year, the federal government is providing ten billion euros for the future pension fund.
Lindner also intends to pay in at least ten billion euros a year over a period of 15 years in a "savings phase".
Only then should the return on the fund flow into the pension system.
However, this has not yet been finally clarified in the coalition.
What other questions are still open?
That's a lot, because the government hasn't yet passed a bill on stock pensions.
Among other things, it is unclear which specific requirements should apply to the investment strategy of the fund.
Lindner refers here to the specifications that apply to the kenfo.
The main question is what investment risk the fund is allowed to take, i.e. what proportion is invested in bonds and what proportion is invested in shares, funds or ETFs that track indices.
With an increasing proportion of equities, the chances of return improve on the long-term average.
However, this is also offset by higher price risks.
In addition, it would have to be clarified whether ecological and social criteria should also be taken into account in investment decisions.
It is also controversial within the coalition to what extent part of the regular pension contributions could be put into the fund in the future.
In his own words, Lindner can imagine that the contributors “participate individually” in the fund.
What criticism is there?
The SPD and the Greens are very skeptical about the plans.
Many fear that even if the fund has comfortable financial resources, the effect on stabilizing the pension system will be small.
Green Group Vice President Andreas Audretsch said on Tuesday that Lindner's plan contained "high risks".
His parliamentary group is not available for "experiments in financing the statutory pension insurance".
The German Trade Union Confederation (DGB) warned against "gambling with the money of the contributors".
The left is completely against the share pension and instead demands that all employees pay into the statutory pension, including the self-employed and civil servants.
(AFP/utz)