According to a report, after at least 45 years of insurance, Germans receive an average monthly pension of 1543 euros. According to the editorial network Germany (RND), this is the result of a response from the Federal Ministry of Labor to a written request from the left-wing parliamentary group leader Dietmar Bartsch.
The difference between women and men is therefore several hundred euros: after 45 years of insurance, men would receive an average monthly pension of 1,637 euros and women 1,323 euros.
According to the report, the average pensions in the west and east of the country also differ: In western Germany, men and women receive an average of 1,605 euros a month after 45 years of pension insurance. In the east, on the other hand, it is only 1,403 euros per month.
“An average pension of 1,543 euros after 45 years of work is a shameful record of the pension policy of the last two decades,” criticized Bartsch to the RND. The fact that women and East Germans received significantly less shows “that we are a long way from a fair system of adequate pensions”.
The left-wing politician asked the traffic light government “an extraordinary pension increase of ten percent this year to compensate for inflation for all pensioners”. It shouldn’t be “that ministers, state secretaries and pensioners collect 3,000 euros inflation premium, but pensioners continue to lose purchasing power in real terms”.
Germany needs a significantly higher pension level, Bartsch warned in the interview. “This can be financed by a major pension reform towards a ‘pension fund for everyone’ – an insurance into which all employed people pay: including civil servants, the self-employed and above all members of parliament and ministers.”
According to a report, more pensioners than ever before are currently receiving basic security in Germany. As the newspapers of the Funke media group reported on Sunday, citing previously unpublished data from the Federal Statistical Office, 684,000 pensioners were dependent on basic security in the first three months of the year: 90,000 more than in the previous year. This corresponds to an increase of around 15 percent year-on-year.
Women are particularly affected by poverty in old age. According to the data, six out of ten recipients of basic security were female.
All people whose income is not sufficient to cover the cost of living can apply for basic security in old age. The standard rate corresponds to that of basic security. Since last year, refugees from Ukraine who have reached retirement age have also been entitled to benefits under the Social Code under the usual conditions instead of under the Asylum Seekers Benefits Act as before.
