Peter Bofinger, a member of the pension commission, has issued a warning against including civil servants in the statutory pension insurance system. According to his comments to the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung”, integrating public employees would constitute a massive double burden on the public sector.
Bofinger explained that if such a system overhaul were to occur, the government, acting as an employer, would have to fund pension contributions for newly incorporated civil servants while simultaneously maintaining the pensions of currently retired individuals. This financial dual burden, he noted, would persist for the next 40 years, until the current generation of civil servants retires. He stressed that the transition itself was the core difficulty, stating that while a perfect solution might exist, implementation is exceptionally challenging.
Furthermore, Bofinger pointed to significant constitutional obstacles inherent in fully integrating civil servants into the statutory pension insurance. He explained that the civil servant relationship is a special status protected by the Federal Constitutional Court, and its complete inclusion would essentially require a constitutional amendment. An alternative, he suggested, might be the balancing of the financial gap through increased public sector remuneration.
Although the commission’s own report categorized a system combining active workers and civil servants as the “ideal model for age security,” it cautioned that such a system might be difficult to realize in the near future. This stands in contrast to recent advocacy, such as that of Federal Labor Minister Bärbel Bas (SPD), who had previously argued for the inclusion of civil servants in the statutory pension scheme.
