“We can’t afford it”
Kretschmann sharply criticizes retirement at 63
09/07/2023 1:27 p.m
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At the age of 63, not only did roofers retire, but also many healthy and urgently needed specialists, criticizes Baden-Württemberg’s Prime Minister Kretschmann. In times of a shortage of skilled workers and increasing life expectancy, things cannot go on like this, says the Green.
People are getting older and at the same time the shortage of skilled workers is becoming more and more severe: For Baden-Württemberg’s Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann, this is a reason to discuss the future of pensions.
“We have to deal with the retirement age in a goal-oriented manner. Anyone who has worked hard physically must be treated differently than someone who is still physically and mentally fit,” said the Green politician. More and more people did knowledge work and not hard physical work. “We have to adapt our pension system better to that.”
One problem is early retirement at 63, says Kretschmann. You can’t deal with it like you used to. “We can’t afford to let people who are actually healthy and well paid retire at 63,” said Kretschmann. Retirement at 63 is not intended for these people. Kretschmann referred to the scientific advisory board of the Federal Ministry of Economics. He states that the majority of those who retire early are well educated, have above-average earnings and are healthy.
Not only target group uses offers
“So it’s an erroneous assumption that’s floating around that it’s mainly roofers or other people who work hard physically or mentally who use this offer,” said Kretschmann. The offer was originally intended for people who can no longer work. “A large proportion of those who use it shouldn’t do it for health reasons,” criticized Kretschmann.
In addition, people are getting older and staying healthy for longer. “That must have an effect on the pension system, because otherwise the federal budget would have to pay more and more for the pension – and that is also a question of intergenerational equity,” said Kretschmann.
“Pension at 63” means the pension without deductions after 45 years of insurance, because initially people born before 1953 could retire at the age of 63 without deductions. Last year, according to pension insurance, the age limit was 64 years. If you were born in 1964 or later, there is no deduction-free pension until you are 65 at the earliest. A few months ago, Baden-Württemberg’s finance minister, Danyal Bayaz of the Greens, described retirement at the age of 63 as a serious mistake. This is not only unfair to the generations and bad in view of the shortage of skilled workers, but also a devastating signal that needs to be corrected.
“My generation has to adjust to longer working hours”
“Instead of politicians having new debates about pensions every few years, we should finally start seriously considering how we can find a fair balance between working hours and retirement as life expectancy increases.” As a possible model, Bayaz mentioned that each additional year of life expectancy would be divided into four months of additional work and eight months of additional retirement.
From Bayaz’s point of view, regular retirement at the age of 67 is also not sustainable. “My generation has to get used to working longer in old age – even if we want to maintain our prosperity,” said the Green politician. “I think that’s reasonable for many professions, since the working world will change fundamentally in the coming years, physically demanding work will be less, knowledge work will be more.”