Increase of 12 percent since 2021: More and more pensioners are going to the social welfare office

12 percent increase since 2021
More and more pensioners go to the social welfare office

The high inflation does not stop at the wallets of pensioners. The Federal Statistical Office has recorded a drastic increase in seniors applying for basic security in old age. The left demands a pension summit against poverty in old age.

More and more pensioners in Germany are making their way to the social welfare office. This is shown by new figures from the Federal Statistical Office, which are available to the editorial network Germany (RND). The statisticians come to a year-on-year increase of twelve percent in the number of seniors who apply for basic security in old age. In absolute figures: from June to September 2022 alone, the number of withdrawals increased from 628,570 to 647,515 within three months. That’s 18,945 more people. Compared to the previous year in September 2021, there are even 68,420 more people in the “age limit and older” category who have applied for basic security, which corresponds to an increase of around twelve percent.

“Poverty in old age is chasing from record to record,” criticized Dietmar Bartsch, leader of the Left parliamentary group, to RND, adding: “Twelve percent more since the federal elections – the inflation arrives at the social welfare office.” Bartsch called the numbers “just the tip of the iceberg”. Millions of pensioners would suffer from the current price explosion. “We need a consistent anti-inflation policy,” demanded the parliamentary group leader. The prices for food and energy would have to fall, for example through “tightened price brakes and government price controls to prevent food and energy companies from cashing in”.

“Need a pension summit in the Chancellery”

In this context, Bartsch brought up a summit meeting on the subject of pensions: “We urgently need a pension summit in the chancellery,” said the left-wing politician. “It’s high time for a major pension reform in Germany. The pension must secure the standard of living and protect against poverty.”

In previous years, the proportion of pensioners who received basic social security rose much more slowly. According to the Federal Statistical Office, the old-age poverty rate among pensioners was 3.1 percent in 2016 and rose slowly to 3.4 percent by 2021. “Poverty in old age in Germany is not a mass phenomenon. Nevertheless, the increase should be taken seriously,” Deutsche Rentenversicherung told the Funke newspapers in early January let it be said at the end of the year.

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