The economist Jens Südekum, advisor to Federal Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil (SPD), proposes a fundamental restructuring of the pension system. In the future, the decisive factor will no longer be a fixed retirement age, but rather the number of years in which someone has paid contributions.

“The goal remains an effective extension of working life. In this respect, it would have to be at least 45 years,” Südekum told the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung. “Those who reach these contribution years could retire without deductions – some before the age of 67, others later.

From one Südekum doesn’t think much of a general pension at 70. In his opinion, such a solution would further exacerbate social inequality. Instead, he advocates replacing the rigid age limit with a fixed number of contribution years.

When employees could retire under this model

Anyone who has paid contributions for 45 years could therefore retire without deductions. When that would be depends largely on when someone started working life. An example calculation shows the differences.

Who Born in 1985 and working at 17could with 62 to retire.
Who Was born in 1985 and only started at 26should be until 71 work.

Anyone who would like to retire before reaching the required years of contributions could still do so, but would have to accept reductions in the statutory pension. Südekum reports that his proposal generated a lot of support – especially from people without academic training.

Who would benefit

• Employees with early training, for example in crafts or industry
• People who started their professional life at the age of 16 or 17
• Employees with long working histories without study time
• Many skilled workers and employees in physically demanding jobs

Why Südekum considers the current system to be unfair

According to the economist puts the current pension system at a disadvantage especially people who start their careers early. Anyone who begins training at the age of 17 would have to work for around five decades until the current retirement age of 67. People who have studied for a long time, on the other hand, often have significantly fewer years of contributions.

There is also a second effect: people with higher incomes statistically live longer – and therefore receive longer pensions on average. “Higher earners not only pay into the pension fund for a shorter period of time, they also receive their pension for significantly longer,” said Südekum.

According to the economist, nothing would change in the basic principle of the statutory pension. The amount of future retirement benefits still depends on how much someone has paid in and how many pension points they have collected. Training periods, raising children or caring for relatives could also still be taken into account.

Merz also relies on private provision

Meanwhile, Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) is relying on additional private provision in the pension debate. Young people in particular should start saving money for old age as early as possible, he said at a CDU event in Ravensburg.

Even small monthly amounts such as 50 euros could grow into a significant retirement provision in the long term.