After a zero round, the retirement benefits of pensioners should increase again significantly in the next year. At first there was talk of more than five percent. But the traffic light coalition is stepping on the brakes.
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin The around 21 million pensioners in Germany must expect that the pension increase next year will be a little lower than expected. “The forecast was 5.2 percent. Now I expect pensions in Germany to rise by 4.4 percent from July 2022, “said the acting Federal Minister of Labor Hubertus Heil (SPD) of” Bild am Sonntag “. “That’s still very neat.”
The reason for this is that, according to the report, the traffic light coalition wants to reintroduce the catch-up factor. The expected new Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) as Federal Minister of Labor in the financial crisis of 2008 introduced to compensate for the pension guarantee.
This ensures that if wages fall in a crisis, pensions do not have to be cut as well. If wages rise again, the catch-up factor should ensure that the pension cut that has not been implemented is compensated mathematically. The grand coalition suspended this catching-up factor in 2018.
At the beginning of November it was still said that next July pensions could rise by 5.2 percent in western Germany and by 5.9 percent in the east. This would have increased pensions in western Germany more than they have been for almost 40 years.
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This year there was no significant increase for retirees due to the corona pandemic. In the west there was a zero round, in east Germany an increase of 0.72 percent. The reason was the cyclical slump in premium income.
Heil: “No pension cuts”
Heil also made it clear: “A government led by Social Democrats will not lead to pension cuts. And: The pension development must not be decoupled from the wage development. That is why we ensure a stable pension level over the long term. ”
At the same time, he promised to implement the increase in the minimum wage by the middle of next year: “We will tackle the increase in the minimum wage to 12 euros very quickly. The increase should apply by next summer at the latest. Then around ten million people will earn more. “
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