The Cologne Institute for Economic Research (IW) has said that the German government should consider raising the age for workers to receive pensions to 70. This was reported on August 11 by Deutsche Welle, in Bonn.
The think tank said social trends made the rise inevitable
The Institute said that the government should consider raising the age for workers to receive pensions to 70.
The group's chief economist, Michael Huether, told the German daily newspaper Rheinische Post on Wednesday that current plans to raise the age to 67 might not go far enough.
"When we look at rising life expectancy and declining birth rates in Germany, a retirement age of 70 must be considered," said Huether.
"We should not stop raising the pension in 2029, but instead continue with it afterwards."
The current position is that pensionable age will rise in monthly steps between 2012 and 2029. Employees currently aged 40 would be the first to have to work until 67.
But political lobby group Sozialverband Deutschland (SoVD) condemned the idea as "summer madness" on Wednesday. Any hike in the pension age from 65 would be unfair at present, said SoVD president Adolf Bauer. Unemployment and illness force most people out of work before the age of 67, claimed Bauer, meaning that a rise in pension age - even by two years - would be an "effective pension cut."
Social campaign group VdK dismissed the calls for retirement at 70 as "utopian," saying that many workers would be physically incapable of working to such an age.
To read the Deutsche Welle report, click here
