After the introduction of the new citizens' allowance as a substitute for Hartz IV on January 1, the traffic light government wants to promote a further expansion of the statutory pension this spring.

In addition to building up a new type of capital stock for pension insurance under the term stock pension, this also includes a new, long-term “stop line” for the pension level.

According to the SPD and Greens in particular, this should ensure greater annual pension increases in the future than would be the case with the previous pension formula.

Dietrich Creutzburg

Business correspondent in Berlin.

  • Follow I follow

The FDP is now but conditions for this socio-political project.

Above all, she only wants to take part in the new regulation on the stronger annual pension increases if it is really clear that they will remain affordable for contributors and taxpayers in the long run.

"In the pension formula, all parameters must be demonstrably financeable in the long term," said deputy party chairman Johannes Vogel of the FAZ.

To justify this, he adds a fundamental warning: "The dependency of our pension system on demographics must not catch up with us in the 2030s, just as our dependency on Russian gas has caught up with us." This is also a key lesson from the crisis year 2022: " Foreseeable challenges will catch up with us as omissions if we don't tackle them in time and comprehensively enough," said Vogel.

Criticism of the economy Schnitzer

Behind this are concerns about issuing new pension promises, which may soon have to be withdrawn again because they cannot be financed.

To prevent this from happening, the FDP is now openly suggesting a change in the regulations on the retirement age - with the aim of extending the average working life of employees.

Indirectly, she can even refer to Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD).

In December, he was critical of the high proportion of people taking early retirement in Germany.

However, the SPD rejects demands to withdraw the “pension from 63” for long-term insured persons.

Vogel now suggests the general age limit, currently 65 years and 11 months: "We should also go further with the retirement age than the mere test mandate in the coalition agreement and make it more flexible, just like in Sweden - that's where people work the longest on average. In Sweden there is no single age limit for everyone, but a corridor for retirement, which ranges from 62 to 68 years, whereby the pension amount is also determined by whether you retire earlier or later in this corridor.

This is exactly how Sweden reaches its above-average retirement age, argues the FDP.