Wolfgang Steiger, Secretary General of the CDU Economic Council, has called for the abolition of several pension benefits as part of a fundamental realignment of Germany's retirement security system. "That includes scrapping costly benefit expansions such as the basic pension, the mothers' pension and retirement at 63, and progressively linking the retirement age to rising life expectancy," Steiger told newspapers of the Funke Mediengruppe (Wednesday editions).
"Only in this way can the ratio of contributors to pension recipients be stabilised over the long term," the CDU politician argued. Pension policy must once again be more strongly oriented towards sustainability. "Instead of ever more burdens, we finally need a tangible relief for contribution payers and taxpayers," Steiger said.
The statutory social insurance systems face "enormous challenges" as a result of demographic change, the Secretary General of the CDU Economic Council told the Funke media group. For this reason, Germany cannot afford "additional pension giveaways."
Steiger was particularly emphatic in his opposition to early retirement. "All early retirement incentives must be eliminated," he demanded. "Above all, there must be no relaunch of retirement at 63 under a different label." Those who enter working life early are already "adequately rewarded through the pension points accrued in the process." The Economic Council rejects any additional, contributor-funded early retirement.
Steiger called for Germany to make "a 180-degree turn in retirement security policy and in the social systems." Without reforms, social contributions could rise to as much as 50 percent by 2035. "If the grand coalition continues in the wrong direction of additional pension costs, the business location suffers serious damage, hardworking citizens are demotivated, young people are driven out of the country and skilled foreign workers are deterred," Steiger warned.
The pension commission appointed by the federal government is currently deliberating on reform options for the retirement security system. The black-red coalition has announced a comprehensive pension reform to stabilise the system over the long term in the face of demographic change.
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