Bas proposes including civil servants and self-employed in Statutory pension insurance

Federal Minister of Labor Bärbel Bas (SPD) has called for civil servants, the self-employed and members of parliament to be included in the statutory pension insurance scheme in the future. “We need to involve more people in the financing of pension insurance,” Bas told the Funke Mediengruppe newspapers on Saturday. Politicians from the CDU and CSU immediately rejected the proposal.

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Bas argued that a broader base would increase the income of the pension funds. The minister pointed out that pension contributions are likely to rise slightly next year due to demographic factors. The CDU/CSU and SPD initially want a commission to discuss pension insurance reform. However, the coalition agreement stipulates that the pension level should be stabilized at 48% by 2031.

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Bas rejected the idea of linking the retirement age to life expectancy. “A link will not work simply because there are so many different jobs,” she told the Funke newspapers. In some professions, people wanted to work longer and could do so; Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU), for example, is already 69 years old. However, there are also professions “where people are already finished at 60”.

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CSU state group leader Alexander Hoffmann opposed the inclusion of civil servants and the self-employed. This “neither solves the problems in pension insurance nor is it covered by the coalition agreement”, he told Bild am Sonntag. He warned Bas that she should not try to “dictate old SPD ideas as a future result” to the pension commission planned by the coalition.

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Christoph Ahlhaus (CDU), Chairman of the Federal Association of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (BVMW), described the SPD politician's proposal as “populist nonsense that does not solve a single pension problem in the long term”. Self-employed people need relief, “not compulsory membership in a state pension scheme that is ready for a storm”, said the BVMW boss. “Economic turnaround is different”, Chancellor Merz should “make this clear from the outset”.

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The coalition agreement between the CDU/CSU and SPD makes no mention of changes to the pension system for civil servants. However, it does say the following about the self-employed: “We will include all new self-employed persons who are not assigned to a mandatory pension scheme in the statutory pension insurance system in a founder-friendly manner.” However, other “reliable” forms of pension provision for the self-employed in old age should remain possible.

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The head of the DIW economic research institute, Marcel Fratzscher, expressed caution. "The proposal by Social Affairs Minister Bärbel Bas is sensible and correct in principle. Because the existing system creates huge inequality between civil servants and employees, is very expensive for the state and reduces flexibility in employment in the public sector,“ he told the ”Rheinische Post" (Monday edition). In the short term, however, such a reform would be “extremely expensive” with additional costs of 40 billion euros per year, he also warned.

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Economic expert Martin Werding issued similar warnings. Although a more uniform pension system would “certainly be advantageous”, he told the Funke Mediengruppe newspapers, it would not lead to an improvement in pension finances. In order to avoid additional costs in the short term, he also advocated only implementing such a system change for new civil servants if necessary.

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Sören Pellmann, head of the Left Party parliamentary group, described Bas' demand as “naturally correct”, but expressed doubts as to whether this could be implemented in the face of opposition from the CDU/CSU. Nevertheless, the need for reform is great. “We can't continue to watch as more and more people have to collect bottles and queue at food banks after a hard working life,” explained Pellmann.

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The Left Party politician insisted on an increase in the pension level back to 53% and a solidarity-based minimum pension of 1,400 euros per month. In addition to a broader base of contributors, this should also be financed by increasing or abolishing the contribution assessment ceiling. The designated FDP leader Christian Dürr opposed a "compulsory pension for the self-employed". Instead, he called for a share pension based on the Scandinavian model.