Zur Rentenproblematik: Lösungswege und Reformvorschläge

Abstract

This economic policy forum is assigned to the problems of pensions. Eckart Bomsdorf remarks that the pension scheme system in Germany will be stretched to its limit in the future. Like in many other highly developed countries, the reason for this is the demographic development. The number of people who receive pensions is increasing, while the number of contributors is stagnating or even decreasing. The latest pension reforms try to counteract this development. They will work until 2010, after this, however, these measures will not be sufficient to secure Germany’s pension system. Some additional measures can make the statutory pension system in Germany fit for the future. Increasing the retirement age and a new pension formula, which takes the demographic development into consideration sufficiently, are of particular importance.

In his contribution, Axel Börsch-Supan states that after the Pension Reform 2000 has successfully passed both chambers of the German parliament, the German pension system still rests mainly on an expanding pay-as-you-go financing mechanism. He argues that the long-run stabilization of the German pension system will need further reform steps with three main elements: (1) A reformed pay-as-you-go pillar which is actuarially fair, features a transparent national account set-up, and freezes contribution rates; (2) A deeper second funded pillar which is based on US 401(k)-style grouped accounts that finances the impending aging burden; (3) An internally consistent regulatory framework for the German capital market including uniform taxation of all retirement savings according to the EET principle.

The topics of Friedrich Breyers contribution are often neglected elements of the pension reform: dependents relief and pension splitting within the social security system. The reform introduces the choice of splitting, where each spouse receives half of the total pension claims, which both have acquired during the marriage. The author asks whether the method of income tax splitting should be applied to the health insurance as well as the pension system in order to strengthen the equivalence principle. It is shown that only with mandatory splitting in the pension system the preferential treatment of married couples as opposed to singles would be eliminated.