Freie Wähler on pensions

The Free Voters reject raising the retirement age and want to keep the pension level at 48 percent or above. Anyone who has paid contributions for 45 years should be able to retire without deductions. To guard against old-age poverty, the pension system should be fundamentally reformed and the Mütterrente (mothers' pension) raised and extended.

The Free Voters do not want to raise the retirement age. Pensions should not fall below 48 percent of the average wage. After 45 years of work, people should get a full pension. Mothers should get more pension. Nobody should be poor in old age.

Instead of later retirement, the party wants to stabilize pension funds by other means. The higher mothers' pension should be paid for by all taxpayers, not just by insured contributors. The federal budget should fully reimburse the pension insurance for benefits not covered by contributions. The statutory pension should largely secure people's standard of living, supplemented by stronger occupational and private provision. The platform calls for transparency in how contributions and tax money are used.

The Free Voters want more flexible pension models that let people retire earlier or later depending on their circumstances. Retirees and retired civil servants should be allowed to earn up to 2,000 euros a month tax-free on top of their pension. This is meant to keep expertise in companies and ease the shortage of skilled workers.

People should decide for themselves when to retire. Retirees should be allowed to earn 2,000 euros a month extra. They should pay no tax on that. This keeps their knowledge in companies. Age limits for volunteer roles should be reviewed.

The party wants to remove barriers to older people being active as volunteers, in their families, in their neighborhoods and at work. Age limits, for example for volunteer fire departments or lay judges, should be reviewed to see whether they are justified and dropped where appropriate. Simple options should be created for local care networks. Federal and state governments should fund initiatives against loneliness in old age, such as those run by senior citizens' councils and nonprofit associations.

The Free Voters want to prevent pensions from being taxed twice. In their view, it is unfair for people who paid taxes during their working lives to be burdened again in old age. The state should do more to reward occupational and private retirement saving.

The Free Voters want no double tax on pensions. Many people already paid taxes while they worked. They should not pay again in old age. The state should also reward private saving for old age.

Pensions should be taxed in a way that avoids a twofold burden. The platform points to Canada as a model for supporting private provision. There, returns in a private retirement account are free of taxes and levies, and the money may be withdrawn only in retirement. More generally, the party opposes placing an excessive tax burden on retirees.

The Free Voters want to stop health and long-term care insurance contributions from being charged twice on direct insurance policies and company pensions. Those affected should also be compensated.

Some people save for old age through their employer. When the money is paid out, they pay health and care insurance contributions. The Free Voters call this paying twice. They want to end it. Affected people should get compensation.

The platform speaks of millions of people who trusted that their direct insurance would be paid out free of social contributions. The party wants to pursue the demand together with the association of people harmed by direct insurance rules. Besides ending the double contribution, it calls for compensation for those affected.

The Free Voters demand that the agricultural social insurance, the statutory pension insurance, and the civil service pension scheme mutually recognize all pension-relevant periods. The aim is a fair assessment of a person's working life.

Germany has different old-age systems. There are systems for farmers, employees, and civil servants. The Free Voters want each system to accept time from the others. That way a person's whole working life counts.

The demand covers three systems: old-age provision for farmers, the statutory pension, and civil servants' pensions. Periods completed in one of them should also count in the others. The platform names a fair assessment of the entire working life as the goal.