Monika Queisser, a retirement expert at the OECD, has urged the governing coalition to implement pension reform swiftly. “I believe it would be worse for the government to do nothing than to push through the reform. Public expectations are real,” said the head of the OECD’s Social Policy Department to the “Handelsblatt”. She noted that, drawing on global experiences with reforming pension systems, governments tend to avoid pension reforms more than health or education reforms, even though those also affect everyone directly.
Addressing the controversy surrounding the early retirement option, known as “Rente mit 63,” Queisser explained, “People conflate two separate issues: recognizing a lifetime of contribution and buffering the consequences of hard labor. For individuals who genuinely cannot work, there is the disability pension-that could be increased. But the Rente mit 63 is far too costly because it operates on a ‘bucket brigade’ principle.” Queisser herself was a member of the pension commission that recommended abolishing the Rente mit 63.
She pointed out a unique characteristic of the German system: currently, two-thirds of all new retirees are retiring before reaching the standard pension age. Overall, she assessed that the German pension is neither exceptionally generous nor exceptionally expensive compared to international rates. However, Queisser emphasized that “poor pensioners here are relatively badly off.”
