In the debate about the start of retirement in Germany, FDP deputy leader Johannes Vogel spoke out in favor of extensive flexibility. “I am convinced that no one has to tell people when they have to retire – also because the CVs are becoming more and more different,” Vogel told the German Press Agency in Berlin. Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) had previously spoken out in favor of more people than before actually working until the applicable retirement age.
Vogel said: “The country that is most successful here in Europe is Sweden with its model of flexible retirement ages.” In Sweden, citizens can decide within a corridor when they want to retire. The earlier you leave, the less pension you get.
Vogel said that Sweden will thus achieve the highest effective retirement age in Europe and more self-determination for people. A very simple rule applies in Sweden: “Those who retire earlier will receive a lower pension, those who retire later will receive more.” Vogel demanded: “We should also be guided by that here.” The FDP has been demanding this for a long time.
Dialogue on retirement agreed in the coalition agreement
Lower Saxony’s Prime Minister Stephan Weil also campaigned for more flexibility. “The best thing would be a system in which people from a certain age decide for themselves how long and how much they want to work,” the SPD politician told the “Tagesspiegel”. “But if you can’t or don’t want to continue working, you have to leave earlier and be able to live off your pension.”
Vogel acknowledged Chancellor Scholz that he had initiated an important debate with the question of longer working hours. Scholz had told the newspapers of the Funke media group and the French newspaper “Ouest-France”: “It is important to increase the proportion of those who can really work until retirement age. That is difficult for many today.”
Vogel, who is also parliamentary manager of the FDP parliamentary group, recalled that the traffic light had already had this debate during the coalition negotiations. It was agreed in the coalition agreement to conduct a dialogue process on the Scandinavian model. “We should also tackle this project of the coalition agreement with determination in this legislature,” demanded Vogel.
At the time, the SPD, Greens and FDP had announced that they would hold a dialogue with the social partners about how wishes for longer working life could be realized more easily. In addition to flexible retirement based on the Scandinavian model, the traffic light also wants to include the situation of stressed professional groups in the debate.
Traffic light ruled out any further increase in the retirement age
Verdi boss Frank Werneke called for people to stay away from regulations that allow earlier retirement. “Many people retire earlier and accept high financial losses because they see it as the only way out of a workload that they cannot handle until retirement age,” he told the “Stuttgarter Zeitung” and the “Stuttgarter Nachrichten”. .
The traffic light in the coalition agreement also ruled out a further increase in the retirement age. According to the current legal situation, the age limit without pension deductions will be gradually raised from 65 to 67 years by 2029.
About a month ago, the employer representative on the federal board of pension insurance, Alexander Gunkel, demanded that the age limit for pensions should be re-examined. Gunkel pointed out that a government commission on the future of pensions had already recommended in 2020 that there should be a new assessment of a possible increase in the age limit in 2026.
Federal Minister of Labor Hubertus Heil (SPD) had announced that a pension package II would be presented in the near future. This should set the course for a long-term stabilization of pensions, even if more and more members of the baby boomer cohorts are retiring.
