The left complains about injustice
More than a million pensioners work part-time
September 17, 2023, 12:07 a.m
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The number of working pensioners has recently grown to more than a million. The left interprets this as a sign of a broken pension system. People are forced to do this because otherwise they wouldn’t be able to make ends meet. In the Union we see things differently.
More and more pensioners are taking up employment in Germany. Currently, 1,123,000 employees are over 67 years old and have therefore exceeded the normal retirement age. This means that 56,105 more seniors are currently employed than at the end of last year. This emerges from answers from the Federal Ministry of Labor to parliamentary questions from the Left Party, which are available to the Editorial Network Germany (RND).
According to the information, of the over one million working pensioners, 251,000 are subject to social security contributions and 872,000 are only part-time workers. The Left sees the fact that the vast majority are only marginally employed in so-called 520-euro mini-jobs as a clear indication that more and more pensioners have to work to make a living. “More and more people are still having to work over the age of 67, which is a sad development and a symptom of a broken pension system,” said the Left Party’s East Representative, Sören Pellmann, to the RND.
Low pensions and high prices would actually force more and more pensioners to continue working. “For many people, this is not a voluntary decision, but rather necessary to get through the month,” criticized Pellmann, although without providing any concrete evidence for his analysis.
Union for tax relief for pensioners
A list by the Ministry of Labor recently showed that of the around 22 million full-time employees in Germany who are currently subject to social insurance contributions, around 9.3 million currently receive a pension of less than 1,500 euros in old age. According to the RND, payments from company or private pension schemes are not taken into account.
While the Left warns of a growing risk of poverty in old age, the Union demands tax relief for working pensioners. Because many people want to earn something extra in addition to their pension or don’t want to sit on the sofa all day, CDU General Secretary Carsten Linnemann is calling for taxes on additional income to be abolished. The Union argues that continued employment despite retirement is also a means of combating the current shortage of skilled workers.