As of: March 5, 2024, 9:48 a.m
By: Mark Stoffers
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The president of the social association VdK takes the traffic light coalition to task.
Verena Bentele attaches demands to the new pension package II.
Berlin – The new pension package II should soon be in the starting blocks.
Federal Minister Hubertus Heil announced the pension package some time ago and recently stated that he and Finance Minister Christian Lindern had come a long way.
According to several media reports, Pension Package II will be presented next week.
The focus of the new reform is the pension level, which is intended to be stabilized in the long term.
In addition, it has the right to put the pension on a secure footing.
The pension policy spokeswoman for the FDP told
Table.Media
that the pension package II would initiate a “paradigm change in pension policy”.
However, an increase in contributions seems to be unavoidable due to the new traffic light pension package.
High expectations of the new pension package: “Higher pension levels and therefore higher pensions”
Nevertheless, expectations of the traffic light's new pension package are high.
Social associations like the VdK and its members make no secret of it.
They point out that the average pension has lost considerable purchasing power in recent years due to high inflation.
In particular, the costs of everyday needs such as energy, food and rent have risen significantly.
High expectations of the new pension package: VdK President Verena Bentele and Labor Minister Hubertus Heil.
© IMAGO (2) / Eibner / dts news agency
VdK President Verena Bentele therefore associates the introduction of the traffic light coalition's pension package not only with hopes, but above all with demands.
“The pension package must be a big success!
Since pensioners, unlike other groups, have not received any inflation compensation, they now need systematic improvements,” says Bentele urgently on the VdK homepage.
“The best answer for these people is a higher pension level and therefore higher pensions.”
New traffic light pension package: “Increase pension level to 53 percent”
The pension level is currently set at 48 percent.
Many experts expect that Heil and his Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (BMAS) will not want to change this until well into the 2030s.
Instead, the pension should be stabilized in the long term in relation to wages with this existing holding line.
However, this plan does not go far enough for Bentele.
“The announced pension package II must not only stabilize the pension level, but also increase it to 53 percent in order to guarantee good pensions,” demands the VdK President and continues.
“That would correspond to a one-off but permanent pension increase of ten percent.”
Head of social association on new pension plans: “Pension is not a stock market game”
Financing should also take place through the introduction of a so-called generation capital of stock pensions.
“The statutory pension will then be financed from three sources in the future,” announced Heil.
So from pension contributions, the tax subsidy and – now – from income from the capital market.
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But Bentele doesn't particularly speak well of the stock pension in the new pension package.
“The priorities must now be set correctly: away from speculative investments on the stock market, towards a solid labor market policy with a higher minimum wage and more employment subject to social security contributions instead of mini-jobs,” says the VdK President, making her demands for the future.
“The pension is not a stock market game, but a central element of social security.
A strong labor market with many good jobs and good wages secures pensions in the long term and thus a retirement worth living.”
Experts criticize the traffic light’s new pension reform
According to experts, the traffic light plans will not be enough.
Among other things, they doubt that the generational chapter will generate enough returns to secure pension levels.
A calculation published on Friday by the employer-related German Economic Institute (IW) comes to the conclusion that the package is likely to lead to an additional increase in annual pension spending of 34 billion euros by 2035.
Furthermore, many experts are convinced that the pension holding line could not be implemented without higher pension amounts.
“Today, contributors cover 77 percent of pension expenses, with the federal government contributing the rest.
If it stays that way, they would have to raise an additional 26.3 billion in 2035, and the federal government would have to raise eight billion,” writes the head of public finance, social security and distribution at the Cologne Institute for the German Economy in a guest article on
focus.de
.
“This would require an even higher contribution rate of 22.3 percent instead of 'only' 21.1 percent.
As a reminder: it is currently still at 18.6 percent.”
The pension package is also not doing well in the German economy, as various leading associations made clear in a position paper on the occasion of the craft fair in Munich.
“Pension insurance must not be additionally burdened with expensive service promises; rather, measures must be taken to reduce the pressure on the contribution rate,” says the associations’ paper.