Frankfurt am Main/Berlin – a turning point in pension policy: With the rising cost of living, employees are also becoming more worried about their old-age security. Citizens are particularly skeptical about extra private provision and speculative, risky forms of investment. This is the result of a current and representative Kantar survey, which IG Metall presented on Thursday at its pension policy conference in Berlin. With a “Soli-Rente-Plus” the union makes a proposal for a new, secure pension module.
Hans-Jürgen Urban, executive board member of IG Metall: “In uncertain times, security is what counts for people – especially when it comes to retirement provision. Wanting to revitalize the failed private provision with riskier forms of investment and sovereign wealth fund ideas leads further in and not out of the impasse. The debate about a further increase in the standard retirement age could also quickly become a catalyst for disenchantment with politics. Strengthening the statutory pension insurance system is at the heart of a solidarity reform.”
Inflation: private pensions are becoming less and less affordable for more and more people
Only a minority can afford adequate private pension provision. 48 percent of those surveyed put little or nothing aside for old age every month: every seventh respondent (13%) saves less than 5 percent of the net household income, more than every third (35%) nothing at all. The situation is even more precarious among low-income earners with a net income of less than 1,500 euros a month: Here 61 percent of citizens save nothing at all and only one in ten (10%) less than 5 percent of the household net income.
The rising cost of living is putting even more strain on personal savings plans: Two-thirds (64%) of respondents say they will not or cannot change their saving behavior. 12 percent will generally save even less.
Hans-Jürgen Urban: “If daily life is becoming more expensive now, people have to save even more on their future. That’s why it’s all the more important to expand the equally financed statutory pension as a solid basis right now.”
New “Soli-Rente-Plus” instead of speculation
High-risk, speculative forms of investment are also rejected by citizens: for 90 percent, security and predictability are particularly important when it comes to old-age provision. Only 7 percent would speculate on a higher return with a greater risk.
Hans-Jürgen Urban: “After the experience of the financial crises, people are rightly skeptical about the constant promise of higher returns on their old-age provision. Despite all the prophecies of doom, the safest return is still the pay-as-you-go, statutory pension.”
In addition, the trade unionist is campaigning for a new additional pension module. With a “Soli-Rente-Plus”, more insured persons and their employers should have better opportunities to pay into the statutory pension insurance and thus acquire higher entitlements. Urban: “We need a new, reliable and calculable standard product for additional provision that covers all of the people’s risks with low administrative costs and no profit interests.”
Citizens want more to pay into the till
For better financing and entitlements in the statutory pension insurance, employees are calling for the introduction of employment insurance: More than three quarters (77%) think it makes sense for politicians to also include freelancers, the self-employed and civil servants in the statutory pension insurance.
Hans-Jürgen Urban: “It is high time that real and lived solidarity was further anchored in the statutory pension insurance system. More people have to pay in and therefore more high earners.”
Refusal to work longer
The discussion about an even later retirement age, which started again in the summer, is apparently being conducted without those affected: three quarters (74%) of the people believe it is unrealistic to work beyond the age of 67. The lower the level of formal education, the less likely it is to have a longer working life: Of those surveyed with only a lower secondary school diploma, only 9 percent could imagine working longer.
Hans-Jürgen Urban: “A higher retirement age actually only means higher deductions from the statutory pension. Anyone who wants to turn the age screw is really just a pension robber.”
On behalf of IG Metall, Kantar Public surveyed 1028 eligible voters in a representative random sample between September 22 and 28, 2022.