Pensioners and Ukrainians affected
More people rely on basic security
April 3, 2024, 11:14 a.m
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At the end of 2023, more people will receive basic state security. The increase is mainly due to refugees. But according to the Federal Statistical Office, many pension recipients in Germany cannot secure their livelihood from their own income and assets.
At the end of last year, more than 1.2 million people received basic security benefits in old age and in cases of reduced earning capacity. That was around two percent or 22,000 more than a year earlier, as the Federal Statistical Office announced. Adults who are permanently unable to work or are permanently unable to support themselves from their own income and assets are eligible for benefits. The age limit may vary depending on the year.
According to the Federal Office, the reason for the significant increase is the increasing number of people entitled to benefits from Ukraine for the second year in a row: their number rose from 73,060 in December 2022 to 86,775 in December 2023, an increase of 18.8 percent. In December 2021 there were still 20,525 people. Ukrainians who had to flee because of the Russian war of aggression have been receiving benefits since June 2022; previously they would have received benefits for asylum seekers. The number of German citizens receiving social benefits fell by almost 1,200 to 910,560 within a year.
Almost 690,000 recipients – that corresponds to a share of 56.9 percent – received basic security in old age. This means that they had reached or exceeded the relevant age limit. This means an increase of 4.7 percent compared to the same month last year, according to the statisticians. People born before 1947 reached the age limit of 65; For those born in 1947 and later, the age limit has been gradually raised to 67 since 2012. Last December the age limit was therefore 66 years.
The remaining 43.1 percent (520,000) received the benefit due to a permanent full disability – for example due to an illness or a disability, as the authority announced. “This means that due to illness or disability, they were unable to work for three hours a day under the usual conditions of the general labor market for an unforeseeable period of time,” the statisticians explained. Their number fell by 1.6 percent within a year.