Deputy FDP parliamentary group leader Lukas Köhler has expressed doubts about the financing of the pension level guarantee and thus called into question the cabinet decision on the Pension Package II.
“Pensions must not become a black hole for the state budget,” Köhler told RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland (RND). “That is why the question of whether a fixed pension level can be financed will still have to be discussed in the Bundestag.”
The second pension package, which the federal cabinet approved on Wednesday, aims to stabilize the pension level at 48 percent. It is also planned to expand the contribution-financed pension to include a funded component – the so-called “generational capital”. A loan from the federal budget is to be invested in the stock market for this purpose. The cabinet decision still has to be confirmed by the Bundestag.
Köhler stressed that additional reforms are needed, such as the abolition of the full pension at 63. This is important “because it takes valuable personnel away from the labor market at a time of acute shortage of skilled workers and also places an additional burden on pension funds.” It is regrettable that “necessary reforms have been postponed for far too long out of fear of the political consequences.” In addition, generational capital must be expanded.