The pension is under pressure – that’s why there have been repeated calls for a later retirement. Something has already changed here due to higher age limits.
On average, people in Germany are retiring later and later. In the past year, the age at which retirement begins rose to an average of 64.4 years, as the new pension atlas of the pension insurance system shows. The main reason for the increase is that the age limit for a deduction-free pension for particularly long-term insured persons has increased, as a spokesman for the pension insurance company in Berlin said. Against this background, trade unionists and the German Social Association (SoVD) called for the debate on a further increase in the retirement age to be ended.
According to the pension atlas, the age of access to old-age pensions for men in the previous year was 64.1 years and in 2001 it was only 62.4 years. The retirement age for women increased from 62.5 years in 2001 and 64.2 years in 2021 to 64.4 years for men last year.
Retire at 64 instead of 63
The pension without deductions after 45 years of insurance was initially considered “pension at 63”, because initially people born before 1953 could retire at the age of 63 without deductions. Last year, the age limit was 64, as the spokesman explained. If you were born in 1964 or later, there is no deduction-free pension until you are 65 at the earliest.
Early retirement is still in demand. With a view to the enormous sums that the pension fund needs from contributions and taxes, Employer President Rainer Dulger had called for an immediate abolition of the deduction-free pension for particularly long-term insured persons. In an interview last week, the head of the Federal Employment Agency (BA), Andrea Nahles, called for the abolition of early retirement programs for older employees in German companies. Although the employment rates of older people have risen noticeably since 2015, there is still considerable labor potential among older people to counteract the shortage of skilled workers.
Another reason for the later average retirement age is the increase in the general retirement age to 67 by 2031, as the pension atlas emphasizes. For example, people born in 1956 could retire at 65 years and ten months.
Longer retirement
At the same time, the increasing age limit until retirement dampened the increase in the duration of pension payments. In recent years, pensioners have received their salaries for longer and longer on average. For men, the duration of drawing a pension increased within ten years from 16.7 to 18.8 years last year. Compared to the previous year, however, the increase remained constant. The women received their pension for an average of 22.2 years, slightly longer than in the previous year and almost a year longer than ten years previously. The pension insurance attributed the longer pension payments to the increasing life expectancy.
Pension reform debate
The federal government intends to present a reform concept for the long-term stabilization of pensions in the coming weeks. One of the plans is to cushion a future increase in premiums through income from investments in the stock market. At the same time, a debate about longer working hours has repeatedly flared up in recent weeks.
The “economic wise man” Veronika Grimm recently spoke out in favor of automatically raising the retirement age as life expectancy increases. Corresponding demands had been raised several times.
SoVD boss Michaela Engelmeier countered such demands: “Only a few can afford to retire earlier.” Although the retirement age is increasing, it is still well below the regular retirement age. This is a sign that people can no longer health-wise. “Another increase in the standard retirement age is therefore pointless,” said Engelmeier of the German Press Agency. Hans-Jürgen Urban from the board of directors of IG Metall told the dpa: “Every increase in the retirement age on paper means in reality for insured persons less in their wallets due to pension deductions.” The average retirement age is rising anyway – so “any discussion” about further increases in the standard retirement age is prohibited.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) had already ruled out a further increase in the retirement age at an election campaign event in Munich. CDU General Secretary Carsten Linnemann had called for tax relief for additional earnings in retirement.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
