As of: March 13, 2024, 9:46 a.m
By: Lisa Mayerhofer
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The traffic light coalition wants to make pensions future-proof with the pension package.
However, the former economist Peter Bofinger criticizes the generational capital contained therein - and suggests an alternative.
Tegernsee - More and more people are retiring, but fewer and fewer are paying into the pension fund: The German pension system is groaning under demographic change.
The pension package presented by Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD) and Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) is intended to help, among other things.
However, former economist and professor of economics at the University of Würzburg, Peter Bofinger, criticizes the generational capital contained in the pension package - and instead suggests a different solution.
Pension package from the traffic light government: “Generational capital is a drop in the ocean”
According to the reform plans presented on Tuesday by Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD) and Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP), a new capital stock of 200 billion euros, also known as generation capital or stock pension, is to be created on the stock market by the mid-2030s as part of the pension package.
This is intended to gradually create a more sustainable basis for future pension financing.
The money should come from the federal government.
In addition, the pension level, which links pensions to wage developments, should be kept stable at 48 percent in the long term.
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spoke about the topic as part of the Entrepreneur Day at Tegernsee, where Bofinger was present as a speaker.
“Generational capital is a drop in the ocean,” criticized Bofinger.
“The proceeds from the generation capital would only bring 0.3 contribution rate points in 2036, so the relief is comparatively modest.”
Prof. Dr.
Peter Bofinger, former economist and professor of economics at the University of Würzburg © City of Aalen
Ex-Wirtschaftsweiser wants to include all self-employed people in statutory pension insurance
Instead, the economist suggests that the self-employed be included in the statutory pension insurance - they do not currently have to pay into the pension insurance.
“I have calculated that if you increase the federal subsidy by ten billion and include the self-employed, you can maintain a level of 48 percent until the 2050s with relative ease,” explains the former economist.
The inclusion of self-employed people therefore has a faster and stronger effect than generational capital.
“If we take a 25-year-old doctor as an example, he will pay in for 40 years until he gets his first pension.
That means I have a kind of introductory benefit - which is very helpful, especially in the phase where things get stuck," said Bofinger to
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.
The pay-as-you-go system in the German pension system only works if “all of the human capital is in the pension system,” explained Bofinger.
“Why shouldn’t someone who drives a taxi pay in when someone who waits in a restaurant puts 20 percent of their income into their pension fund?
That’s incomprehensible to me and I don’t understand why we can’t get these people involved.”
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Retirement age: Bofinger for “flexible solution”
Bofinger, on the other hand, does not see the proposal by current economists Veronika Grimm and Martin Werding to link the retirement age to life expectancy as optimal.
“It is important to ensure how this can be implemented in practice,” explained the economist, referring to jobs that require physical effort and are therefore more difficult to manage as people get older.
“But if it turns out that people actually live longer and are also fitter on average, there is no reason why this additional life time cannot be used as working time,” says the economist.
However, a “flexible solution” must be found for this.