The pension commission appointed by the federal government is set to hand over its report on Tuesday. The reform ideas include abolishing the pension at 63 and linking the retirement age to average life expectancy.
Sarah Vollath, pension policy spokesperson for the Left Party, told the Rheinische Post that the proposals are “nothing less than massive pension cuts, which the Union is loudly applauding.” She said low-income earners would be hit especially hard. She called the extension of working life “an absolute outrage and completely out of touch with reality.”
Vollath also criticized the planned abolition of penalty-free retirement after 45 years of contributions. “That’s not how you recognize a lifetime of achievement,” she said. She described the move toward funded pensions as a “big mistake” and called instead for a strong statutory pension system.
Source: www.zeit.de
