Economist Martin Werding warns against drawing civil servants into the statutory pension system.
He explained to the “Rheinische Post” that the Expert Council has urged reforms of the civil‑servant pension scheme to secure its long‑term financial viability. At the same time, he said, reforms could be structured so that all pension changes automatically apply to civil servants. However, Werding cautions that nothing is gained for the pension system if this would require the federal government, and especially the states and municipalities, to open enormous budget gaps.
“If civil servants are included in the pension fund, the state must pay employer contributions” he said. According to the council’s 2023 calculations, the cost would be about €10 billion in 2035, €20 billion in 2040 and €70 billion in 2060-figures that remain roughly accurate today. More than two‑thirds of these contributions would fall on the states, roughly one‑sixth on the federal government, and the remainder on local municipalities.
Werding added that a transition of this sort would take decades. If the state began contributing for all new civil servants immediately, the change would be in effect for all active employees by around 2070, and the pension system as it exists today would not disappear until after 2090.
Martin Werding is a professor at the University of Bochum and a member of the federal government’s pension security commission.
