Pension at 70: There was it before – will she come back now?

If you look a little deeper into the history books, you will find: the pension with 70, it has already been in Germany. When Chancellor Otto von Bismarck introduced the statutory pension insurance at the end of the 19th century, the age limit was 70 years. Although the age references were not lavish in these early days, many did not reach the necessary age at all. Nevertheless, the pension with 70 at that time meant great socio -political progress.

Today the pension is a specter at 70, because hardly anyone wants to work for that long. According to the current legal situation, he or she does not have to: today’s employees can retire at the latest at the age of 67. But can that stay that way?

Federal Minister of Economics Katherina Reiche finds: No. It is convinced that the working life has to rise to prevent a collapse of the pension system. In the long run, it cannot go well to work only two thirds of adult life and spend a third in retirement. The CDU politician is the pension rebel in the government, because neither coalition partner SPD nor her own party currently want to know something about a later retirement age.

Reiche only demands what many experts think long. “A comprehensive reform of the German pension system is inevitable,” says a current report by well-known economists around Martin Werding and the head of the IFO Institute Dresden, Marcel Thum. Among other things, the scientists recommend the “coupling of the statutory retirement age to life expectancy”, as some European neighbors have already practiced. The International Monetary Fund also recommended this step last year.

In the Netherlands, for example, the following already applies: if life expectancy increases by three years, the Dutch must work for two years longer. In 2028, the retirement age there increases from 67 years to 67 years and three months. In Finland, the first adaptation of the retirement age based on life expectancy is scheduled to take place in Finland. And Sweden, where a flexible retirement age generally applies, also wants to take life expectancy into account from 2026. The full pension is only available there from 67 instead of the age of 66. Further increases are possible in all three models, so that in a few years in these countries the pension with 70 reality could be.

In Germany, the retirement age is currently increasing by one or two months. When the 1964 year of birth retires in 2031, the process has been completed for the time being. The pension at 65 has finally become the pension at 67-as the legislator decided in 2007 in the “RV age limitation law”.

The reason for the decision to increase the retirement age to 67 was the demographic development that the pension fund threatens in two ways. On the one hand due to the increasing life expectancy and the associated longer pension reference. On the other hand, due to the upcoming pension of the particularly birth -strong vintages. The pension system puts both under pressure because fewer workers come up with more pension recipients.

These financing problems are only mitigated by the pension at 67, but not solved. Because the ratio of contributors to pensioners will continue to deteriorate in the coming years. And already today the pension is not financed by contributions, a large proportion comes from the federal budget, i.e. from tax revenues.

A further increase in the retirement age has therefore been discussed for a long time. But the idea also has bitter opponents, for example in the unions. The German Union Confederation emphasizes that the pension at 70 is not realistic because many people – especially in physically and mentally strenuous professions – could not work for so long. A possible solution would be different retirement age for different groups. Minister of Economics Reiche also says about the topic that people “worked hard physically, should be able to retire in good time”.

In addition to increasing the retirement age, there would also be other ways to relieve the pension fund – which also cause all its problems. In theory, you could simply further increase the tax grants, but the money would then be missing elsewhere. Effective but unpopular, it would be to go to the services. The group of economics in order to strengthen the sustainability factor in the pension formula recommends that the economist is advanced. This ensures that the pensions rise less if the ratio of contribution payers deteriorates to recipients. The pension fund would also relieve the abolition of the controversial “pension at 63”. In addition, the economists recommend pairing future pension increases to inflation and not as before to wage development.

The problem: Apart from the verbal advances of the Minister of Economy, the Federal Government has so far showed no enthusiasm to implement only one of these points. In the coalition agreement, she has known herself to maintain the retirement age. Instead of shortening services, she has promised to stabilize the pension level and even expand the mother’s pension. The discount -free pension after 45 years of insurance (“pension with 63”) is also not touched.

Planned innovations such as “Early Start Pension” (mini subsidy in stock-based pensions for children) and “active pension” (pensioners can earn tax-free) does not solve the financing problems. “So far, the severe decisions have been relocated to the future, but this continued to tighten the problem,” the economists judge around Werding and Thum. And so the debate about the pension at 70 will not fall silent.

The article was first published on February 5, 2025 and was extensively updated