Reform suggestions: Bundesbank: discounts at early ducks too low

The Bundesbank considers the Federal Government’s plans to be an “active pension” to be less powerful. For longer working life, it is all the more important to couple the statutory retirement age (for the period after 2031) and the age limit for the earliest possible pension access to life expectancy and end the preferred discount -free pension, “writes the Bundesbank in its monthly report in June.

In their coalition agreement, the Union and the SPD agreed that after 45 years of work, employees can retire prematurely as before and that retirement age 67 will not be increased further. At the same time, the coalition wants to ensure that older people remain working as long as possible. An “active pension” should help: If you reach the statutory retirement age and continue to work voluntarily, you should receive your salary up to 2,000 euros a month.

However, the Bundesbank argues that financial motives are subordinate to the question of why people of older age are still employed. In the foreground there is more fun at work or social aspects. “In this respect, with a financial discount, take -weight effects can be expected,” the Bundesbank economists write. Means: Those who want to work longer anyway take the benefits with them, but the pension system as a whole is not relieved.

Bundesbank: discounts at the beginning of the pension too low

The Bundesbank also considers the current discounts to be too low if the retirement begins prematurely and pleads for a recalculation. The discounts of 0.3 percent per month made “an early pension access for insured persons more attractive” and caused “financial burdens” for statutory pension insurance.

At the same time, the surcharges of 0.5 percent per month are “rather too high” on the basis of the employed calculations for those who only start their pension. According to the applicable legal situation, discounts such as surcharges are regardless of the exact time of the pension.

Proposal for staggered discounts

“There is a lot to be said for staggering and surcharges at the distance to the statutory retirement age in order to make them neutral,” argues the Bundesbank. “Fixed percentages are easier to communicate. However, you do not systematically take into account the influence of pension access times.”

From the Bundesbank’s point of view, it would be more consequently to stagger the monthly-related discounts and surcharges at the distance of the actual pension access to the statutory retirement age. For example, the discount between the ages of 63 and 64 years was 0.37 percent per month for a person of the 1964 vintage. With a pension access between the 66th and 67th year of life, one discount per month would have to be borne of 0.42 percent.

In addition, the Bundesbank pleads to check the discounts and surcharges regularly and “adapt vintages for the need for pensions”. For example, this could be done every five years or if there are new population preliminary calculations by the Federal Statistical Office.