Germany's generous pension system is increasingly deemed unsustainable due to an ageing population and rising life expectancies. Chancellor Friedrich Merz has avoided confronting this issue, focusing instead on incentives for older individuals to continue working. However, Economy Minister Katherina Reiche has advocated for raising the official retirement age to 70, asserting that longer labor periods are necessary. This proposal has sparked backlash, with the junior coalition partner, the SPD, vehemently opposing any increase in the pension age, viewing it as a contentious issue within the fragile government coalition.
Demographic change and ever-increasing life expectancy make it unavoidable: the lifetime labour period must increase, she told the daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung late last month.
A major economic thinktank, the DIW, had argued two decades ago that the minimum pension age should be 70 by 2025 but that instead most Germans were on track to spend only two-thirds of their lives employed.
Reiche insisted that for many Germans, happiness is not about retiring as early as possible but being able to still bring their experience to bear.
The SPD general secretary, Tim Klussendorf, said flatly: A hiking of the pension entrance age is out of the question for us.
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