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Jens Spahn: "Retiring at 63 costs prosperity"
Photograph:
Kay Nietfeld / dpa
Union parliamentary group deputy Jens Spahn (CDU) has called for an immediate end to the "retirement at 63" in view of the shortage of skilled workers in Germany. Retiring at 63 costs prosperity, burdens future generations and sets the wrong incentives," Spahn told Bild am Sonntag. It should be abolished immediately and replaced by a better disability pension." The skilled workers who had retired earlier were now "bitterly lacking".
Green labour market expert Frank Bsirske is therefore against the abolition: "This would result in millions of people retiring with deductions and reduced pensions. Many occupational groups, such as nurses and daycare workers, simply cannot work until the age of 67."
The "pension at 63" is the possibility of early retirement that has existed since 2014. Anyone who has paid into the pension fund for at least 45 years can therefore retire at the age of 63 without deductions. However, since then, this age limit has been raised by two months per year, so that those born after 1964 can only retire at the age of 65 after 45 years without deductions.
The Federal Institute for Population Research announced in December that people in Germany are increasingly retiring early. Many leave the labour market at the age of 63 or 64. In 2021, according to the institute, almost one in three people accessed an old-age pension via the "retirement at 63". The calculations were based on the microcensus data on the development of labour force participation.
SAK/DPA