Schnitzer idea rejected
Government does not touch widow’s pension
07/10/2023 3:18 p.m
The Schnitzer economy defends its idea of giving up the widow’s pension in order to create incentives for working in old age. However, the idea continues to be met with rejection. The federal government is also hastening to reject the economist’s ideas.
The federal government has rejected considerations for abolishing pensions for widows and widowers. There are no such plans, said deputy spokeswoman Christiane Hoffmann. The government rejects this, the coalition agreement does not provide for it. “The survivor’s pension is safe,” explained Hoffmann.
“Wirtschaftswise” Monika Schnitzer had brought up a corresponding consideration and instead proposed a split of the pension between spouses. The chairwoman of the council of experts for the assessment of overall economic development explained on Deutschlandfunk: “I don’t want anyone’s money who is already drawing a pension or expecting one soon.”
Her idea is to distribute all the pension contributions and pension entitlements paid in by a married couple equally to both spouses – she calls it “pension splitting”. Depending on the reform, it would typically be more about new marriages. There would always be confidentiality protection. She cannot say how many widowers and widows could be affected.
Söder: “Hands off the widow’s pension!”
The widow’s/widower’s pension is currently between 55 and 60 percent of the deceased partner’s pension. It is not limited in time. If the surviving dependent has his or her own income, it will be offset against the widow’s/widower’s pension if it exceeds a certain exemption amount. The allowance depends on the current pension value.
With her proposal, Schnitzer wants to create more incentives to get back to work: “Then half of these pension entitlements belong to me, and I can earn even more, sometimes acquire my own entitlements and nothing will be deducted from that.”
Union politicians had criticized the initiative, which Schnitzer had described as a personal position. The Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder tweeted: “Hands off the widow’s pension! This is an attack on many families and the life plans of many women”.