SPD leader and Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil wants to see a “major pension reform” as early as next year. “I hope that we will have the strength and courage to carry out a major pension reform next year,” he told the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung” on Saturday. He is certain that the pension commission appointed a few days ago will do “very good preparatory work” for this. The commission is expected to deliver its findings in the middle of next year.
A far-reaching reform is planned to solve the fundamental problem that fewer and fewer workers are financing more and more pensioners. Klingbeil told the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung” newspaper that the aim was to ensure that people who had worked hard all their lives received a “decent pension.”
The minister defended the proposal to link retirement age not to age, but to the number of years of contributions paid. “What are we to make of it when clever academics call for major reforms on talk shows, but then oppose the suggestion that they themselves might have to pay in for a little longer because they started working later? I find that rather surprising.” Klingbeil emphasized: “We have to discuss everything.”
He advocated that politicians should also pay into the statutory pension insurance scheme. “I have been fighting for this since I joined the Bundestag,” he told the newspaper. “It would only be a small contribution to stabilizing the system, but it would be a visible step toward greater fairness.”
Klingbeil emphasized that the SPD is “the driving force when it comes to moving the country forward again. The status quo is our enemy.” If Germany is to remain a strong country, "we will all have to muster the courage to make radical changes in the new year.
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