Lars Klingbeil, Germany’s finance minister from the SPD, announced at a policy address at the Bertelsmann Foundation on Wednesday that future pension calculations will be based far more on the number of contribution years. He said the state can no longer encourage early retirement and instead must make working longer more attractive.
“We will have to work more as a society” Klingbeil explained. He pointed to high part‑time rates, incentives to leave the workforce early, and transfer systems that can even undermine extra effort as problematic. “I want us to create a system in which effort pays off” he added.
Klingbeil also pledged a reform of the income tax that would relieve about 95 % of employees by a few hundred euros a year. He stressed that high incomes and large fortunes would still be required to contribute.
