The vice chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, Jens Spahn (CDU), has met with sharp criticism for his proposal to abolish retirement at 63 for those who have been insured for many years. “That would be unfair and would hit hard those people who have worked hard all their lives and often with full physical effort,” said Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania’s Minister President Manuela Schwesig (SPD). Other female politicians from the SPD and the Left Party also opposed this.
Spahn justified his initiative with the shortage of skilled workers and high costs. “The pension at 63 costs prosperity, burdens future generations and sets the wrong incentives,” the CDU politician told the newspaper Bild am Sonntag. This option must therefore be “abolished and replaced by a better pension for reduced earning capacity”. The approximately two million skilled workers who retired earlier were “bitterly lacking” in the German economy.
Image: Tobias SCHWARZ / AFP
The “BamS” quoted from a new study by the research institute Prognos commissioned by the employer-affiliated Initiative Neue Soziale Marktwirtschaft (INSM), according to which contribution payers will have to pay almost 140 billion euros extra by 2035 because of the possibility of early retirement without deductions. Moreover, according to the authors of the study, without the possibility of retirement at 63, the skilled labour gap would be about ten to 20 per cent smaller and the pension contribution could be lower.
Schwesig pointed out that only people who can already show 45 years of insurance at that age could claim the pension at 63. “These are, for example, the roofer, the care worker, the saleswoman behind the cheese counter in the supermarket,” she explained in Schwerin. For them, it is “also a sign of respect that they can retire after this long time without deductions”. The shortage of skilled workers can be better countered “with good training, attractive wages and family-friendly working conditions”.
“We decided on the pension at 63 together with the CDU/CSU because it takes into account the hard work of many people who simply cannot work any longer,” explained Dagmar Schmidt, vice chair of the SPD parliamentary group. “Whoever lays the axe to it achieves nothing other than a pension cut for precisely those high achievers.”
“Those who talk about flexible retirement but only want to push up the retirement age are pulling the wool over people’s eyes,” criticised Yasmin Fahimi, Chair of the German Federation of Trade Unions (DGB). “Those who want to keep those who are already at the limit slaving away are very far removed from the real working world of many,” she added. As a remedy for the shortage of skilled workers, Fahimi recommended “good working conditions, full efforts for education and training and digitalisation”.
“For Jens Spahn and the CDU, pensions are apparently handouts that can be cut at will,” criticised Left Party leader Janine Wissler. Many of those affected retire early because “the body no longer cooperates”, she pointed out. In this respect, Spahn’s proposal would also mean “a pension cut through the back door”. Wissler also called for a return to the retirement age of 65 “for all” and from 40 years of insurance from 60. She also advocated including MPs in the statutory pension insurance.
AFP
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