According to the government’s response to a request from the Left Party, 36 percent of future pensioners will only receive a low statutory net pension even after 45 years of work.
According to figures from the federal government, more than a third of full-time employees in Germany will receive a statutory net pension of less than 1,200 euros in old age. According to a response from the federal government to a request from the left parliamentary group, 36 percent of future pensioners will receive a maximum of 1,200 euros net from the statutory pension scheme, even after 45 years of work, as reported by the “Augsburger Allgemeine” (Thursday edition), citing the letter available to them . According to the figures, this also applies to the wealthy south of the republic: In Bavaria, 33 percent and in Baden-Württemberg 29 percent of future recipients end up below the specified limit despite working full-time.
Left parliamentary group leader Dietmar Bartsch called the numbers alarming. “We need a major pension reform in Germany,” he told the newspaper. “We need a pension fund like in Austria, where the average pension is 800 euros higher than here,” demanded Bartsch. “This is possible because not only employees and employers pay in there, but all citizens with an income from work – including members of parliament, civil servants, the self-employed and managers,” he emphasized. “What Austria can do, Germany must also be able to do.”
Bartsch pointed out that the problem affects all federal states: “Almost every third full-time employee in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg faces a net pension of less than 1,200 euros after 45 years of work,” he emphasized. “Currently, a full-time employee would have to earn 3,034 euros gross per month for 45 years in order to calculate a net pension of 1,200 euros. The relationship is not right.” Wage and pension levels are often too low. “What employees earn is often too low and what they get as pensioners is too little,” criticized Bartsch. “The statutory pension often no longer secures the standard of living,” he warned. “Especially in view of the galloping inflation, significant wage increases and a gradual increase in the pension level to 53 percent are required.”
According to federal government figures from data from the Federal Employment Agency, the problem of low pension expectations is greatest in eastern Germany. In Saxony, more than half of future pensioners will go home from statutory insurance with a maximum of 1,200 euros, in Thuringia as many as 57 percent.
