Response to Grimm’s proposal
Linnemann: “You cannot increase the retirement age across the board”
08/14/2023 02:07 am
The Grimm economy is in favor of linking the retirement age to life expectancy. The demand should also be found in the future basic program of the CDU. Secretary General Linnemann can no longer be enthusiastic about it.
Leading politicians from the CDU and FDP reacted cautiously to Veronika Grimm’s proposal to further increase the statutory retirement age. “Politics need the courage to come up with differentiated solutions. You cannot increase the retirement age across the board,” said CDU General Secretary Carsten Linnemann to the newspapers of the Funke media group. “There are people who can work longer with increasing life expectancy. But there are also many who can no longer do this at the age of 60 for physical reasons – whether in care or in the trades”.
Grimm had advocated linking the retirement age to life expectancy. “If life expectancy increases by one year, two-thirds of the additional year would go to gainful employment and one-third to retirement,” she explained to the Funke newspapers. There should be exceptions in the case of health impairments.
The Union is no stranger to Grimm’s recommendation; it coincides with a preliminary concept of the CDU’s “Social Security” commission, which should be reflected in the party’s basic program at the end of the year. Specifically, from 2031, the standard retirement age should increase by four months for every year of life gained. When Linnemann – at that time still in his position as deputy party chairman – was a guest with Markus Lanz on ZDF at the end of May, he defended the plans: “It makes sense that we work longer as we get older,” he said at the time. However, such projects can only win a majority if more is done at the same time for those who cannot work until the age of 67.
FDP calls for long-term planning
According to the current regulation, the standard retirement age of 67 applies to everyone born in 1964 and later. The labor market policy spokesman for the FDP parliamentary group, Pascal Kober, is not fundamentally opposed to an increase. Increasing the retirement age can only be considered with longer transition periods, “because people plan their retirement phase for the long term. Politics must be reliable when it comes to long-term life planning,” he told the Funke newspapers. In the coalition agreement, the federal government had agreed not to touch the retirement age.
Above all, Kober is focusing on making voluntary work beyond the age limit more attractive and less bureaucratic. “The Greens and SPD must give up their blockade here and work with us to find pragmatic solutions.” The Green Economics Minister Robert Habeck had already talked to the in February last year “Handelsblatt” advocates longer working lives on a voluntary basis. In principle, this is already possible: According to the Federal Employment Agency, around 317,000 people had postponed the start of their retirement as of June 31 of last year in order to continue working subject to social security contributions. It is more popular, however, to earn something extra alongside your pension: 990,000 pensioners had a mini-job.