Looking into the future of retirement worries many. But the president of the pension insurance opposes horror scenarios. The occasion gives her a big anniversary.
Berlin – Despite an aging society in Germany, black painting is inappropriate in the debate about future pensions from the perspective of the pension insurance.
“Looking ahead to the coming years, there is no reason for catastrophe scenarios, because we are dealing with long-term, assessable processes without sudden interruptions,” said the President of the Pension Insurance, Gundula Roßbach, of the German Press Agency in Berlin. That shows the view of the longer development, said Roßbach on the occasion of a pension anniversary at the beginning of the year.
In January 1957, the first major pension reform since World War II was passed in the Bundestag. It came into effect retrospectively on January 1st. Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer had pushed through a reorganization of the statutory pension against resistance from the business associations and objections from the finance and economics ministries. Since then, pensions have been geared towards general wage developments and made dynamic. Previously, the benefits were not adjusted to the wage development and were based on a unit amount plus a small increase amount.
Pension insurance “anchor of stability in the pandemic”
“During that time we have seen that we can manage differently in a pay-as-you-go system than in a funded system,” said Roßbach. “The pensions are paid on a pay-as-you-go basis from the current contributions and not only after a phase of capital build-up.” That makes the pension insurance adaptable – this is how the pension insurance has mastered reunification and the financial crisis well. “Now the pension insurance is an anchor of stability in the pandemic.”
Roßbach said: “If we factor out inflation, our standard pension today is two and a half times as high as it was when the pay-as-you-go pension was introduced in 1957.” The standard pension is obtained after 45 years of average earnings with corresponding contributions. “Between 2010 and 2020 alone, the average old-age pensions rose by over 30 percent,” said Roßbach. “So that was really dynamic.”
The DRV President also pointed out that the contribution rate is lower today than it was in the mid-1980s. A lot has changed demographically: in 1985 there were 24 people aged 65 and over for every 100 people between the ages of 20 and 65. Today there are 37. “Pension insurance means that people also participate in economic performance in old age,” emphasized Roßbach.
“In the past few decades, far-reaching reforms have taken place in the pension system in order to react to demographic developments,” said the DRV President. “And in the future too, pension insurance will adapt to changing demographic, social and economic conditions.”
At the turn of the year, leading employer representatives had accused the Ampelkoalition of a lack of willingness to reform pensions. Employer President Rainer Dulger had spoken of a “complete blind flight” with regard to future financial developments due to the impending retirement of baby boomers with high birth rates. Crafts President Hans Peter Wollseifer warned against higher contributions or even higher subsidies through the federal budget. dpa
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