In Germany, pensions are always hotly debated.
With regard to pensions, a foundation wants to protect the future of younger generations with specific demands.
Berlin – In Germany, employees are entitled to a pension at the end of their working life.
This is made possible by the German pension insurance.
Due to demographic change, however, the pension fund is coming under increasing pressure.
The Foundation for the Rights of Future Generations - SRzG for short - is therefore calling for a rethinking of German pension policy.
The foundation, which sees itself as a lobby for the future, demands, for example, that MPs also be included in the statutory pension insurance.
Some of the demands of the SRzG could also result in monetary losses for pensioners.
Pensions in Germany: GroKo prevents pension policy from being dampened until 2030
In order to cushion the demographic change in terms of pensions, the so-called sustainability factor is anchored in German pension policy.
So if fewer and fewer contributors have to fill the coffers for more and more pensioners, the factor should slow down the increase in pensions in order to reduce the burden on employees.
As the portal economy and teaching clearly explains.
In a position paper from 2020, the SRzG called for the reintroduction of the sustainability factor, which was suspended by the grand coalition between 2018 and 2025.
But the reintroduction alone is not enough for the SRzG.
The position paper calls for the factor to be adjusted so that it “reflects the actual relationship between contributors and pensioners”.
Pensions in Germany: High up in the negative rankings in an OECD comparison
According to a 2017 calculation by the OECD, there will be almost 47 pensioners for every 100 employees in Germany in 2027.
At the time of the survey, Germany was in second place among the OECD countries with 36.6 pensioners per 100 employees.
In concrete terms, this means that in 2027 almost two contributors will have to pay for the pension of one person, as the BurdaPortal Finanzen100 calculates.
For comparison: In 1962, six workers paid for one person's pension, according to the federal and state demography portal.
The retirement of the so-called baby boomers (born from the mid-1950s onwards) in particular will further skew the demographic situation in Germany.
Around three million people will then slip from the labor market into the pension insurance system, according to Jörg Tremmel, spokesman for the board of the foundation for the rights of future generations, in an interview with
Focus
.
Solution for future pensions: young people have to pay more and old people have to forego more
According to Tremmel, the solution lies in finding a partial solution.
"The younger ones then have to pay a little more, but the older ones must also be willing to get a little less," the chairman said literally.
If the foundation has its way, something needs to be changed both in terms of the pension level and the contribution rate.
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Pension in Germany: Foundation demands renunciation.
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© Julian Stratenschulte/dpa
Tremmel does not see the federal subsidy, which politicians repeatedly bring into play, as a fair way of intercepting the impending imbalance.
Because this is financed from tax money, which in turn is largely paid for by the younger generations, as Tremmel further clarifies.
In its position paper, the SRzG also calls for adjustment measures that adjust civil servants' pensions to the pension level of pension recipients.
(Lucas Maier)
In order to make traffic safer, older people will soon have to prove their ability to drive.
List of rubrics: © Julian Stratenschulte/dpa