BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - The Left Party in the Bundestag has rejected increasing the retirement age from 67 to 70 as part of the current reform discussions. It is no surprise that a panel made up of representatives from academia and politics would come up with the idea of raising the retirement age to 70, said the Left's spokesperson on pension policy, Sarah Vollath, in Berlin. "In their jobs, that might be possible." For a nurse or a roofer, however, this is completely out of touch with reality due to the physically demanding nature of their work.
The "Bild" newspaper reported that the government-appointed Pension Security Commission also wants to discuss extending the retirement age to 70. This will be discussed on February 23. A spokesperson for Federal Social Affairs Minister Bärbel Bas (SPD) and other members of the panel declined to comment on the report, citing the confidentiality of the commission.
The Green Party's pension expert in the Bundestag, Armin Grau, said that raising the retirement age to 70 was not the right approach. Grau also emphasized that it is problematic when information is leaked from the panel. "If the federal government seriously wants to develop meaningful reforms, it must be able to provide a genuine safe space for internal debates."
The Retirement Age Is a Regular Agenda Item
It is known that the commission is also discussing the future retirement age. One of the issues the panel is tasked with examining is whether there should be an extension of working life, such as a higher retirement age or linking it to increasing life expectancy. In addition to experts, coalition politicians are also among the members, including the head of the Young Group of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, Pascal Reddig (CDU), who was one of the so-called "pension rebels" in the Union and voted against the future stabilization of the pension level in December.
At the beginning of the month, Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) made waves. Statutory pension insurance will only be one component of a new overall level of provision, Merz said at the Deutsche Börse. Private and occupational pension schemes will become significantly more important.
Model: Social State Commission
The Pension Security Commission is expected to present reform proposals before the summer recess. The government considers the Social State Commission, which at the end of January presented proposals for major simplifications of tax-financed social benefits such as citizens' income, to be a model. It is said that this commission was able to develop a far-reaching concept because it was able to deliberate in peace without public interim reports./bw/DP/he
