The Seeheimer Circle within the SPD parliamentary group is advocating for several changes intended to combat chronic old-age poverty, especially among women. According to a strategy paper reported by Stern, the group proposes lowering the minimum required contribution years for the Basic Pension (Grundrente) down to 25 years.
The advocates argue that women frequently fall short of the current threshold for the Basic Pension because of career interruptions and periods of working part-time, thereby leaving them susceptible to poverty despite decades of employment. Furthermore, the conservative wing of the SPD fraction insists that unpaid care work should be recognized more significantly and fundamentally when calculating pension entitlements. They also call for a substantial increase in the pension points accrued for raising children, alongside introducing a pension bonus for families with three or more children.
The paper, titled “Sustaining women for a strong democracy” highlights that interrupted work histories and frequent part-time employment lead to structural age poverty. It notes a significant disparity in poverty risk, stating that 21.6 percent of women over the age of 65 are at risk of poverty, compared to 17.1 percent of men. The report emphasizes that the “part-time trap of today is the old-age poverty of tomorrow”. Specifically, interrupted careers resulting from care work generate a Gender Pension Gap of 46 percent, which measures the percentage difference in pensions between men and women. By lowering the minimum contribution years to 25, the Seeheimer Circle would significantly expand the number of people who qualify for the basic pension.
