FDP's Vogt demands stronger stock pension and warns against mini-job cuts in German reform

Vogt sees 'need for correction'

Schleswig-Holstein's FDP chief and parliamentary group leader Christopher Vogt has urged the federal government not to adopt the pension commission's 33 recommendations unchanged. "There are many sensible measures in the proposals, but they should not be implemented one-to-one as Chancellor Merz envisages," Vogt told the Deutsche Presse-Agentur. He described a broad pension reform as overdue, warning that the pay-as-you-go system is increasingly dysfunctional and propped up only by rising federal subsidies.

A broad pension reform is overdue, because it has been obvious for decades that the current system is not sustainable.

Vogt argued that the announced package does too little on the equity pension while going too far in burdening younger people, the self-employed and students. He called for greater attention to equality of opportunity, intergenerational fairness and merit-based justice.

Equity pension must play a stronger role

The FDP politician insisted that the equity pension must become a stronger capital-funded pillar than currently planned. "This would be the decisive lever to make the system sustainable, because the pension fund would benefit from long-term stock market returns," he said. Too many Germans still rely on low-yield savings models, he added, simply because they lack knowledge about better ways to provide for retirement. Private old-age provision should also be made significantly more attractive from a tax perspective.

This would be the decisive lever to make the system sustainable, because the pension fund would benefit from long-term stock market returns.

Warnings on mini-jobs and the self-employed

Vogt cautioned against restricting mini-jobs as planned. "This would be fatal above all for students and many pensioners, because a low-threshold earning opportunity would disappear for these groups," he said. He noted that after the introduction of a new administrative fee in Schleswig-Holstein and the federal government's cancellation of the Bafög increase, this would be another piece of bad news for many students.

This would be fatal above all for students and many pensioners, because a low-threshold earning opportunity would disappear for these groups.

On the self-employed, Vogt said the government was "on the wrong track". Forcing them into the statutory pension insurance would take the principle of self-employment ad absurdum. Instead, every self-employed person should be allowed to invest their contributions voluntarily in a capital-funded scheme.

Government plans and the sustainability factor

Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) and Labour and Social Affairs Minister Bärbel Bas (SPD) received the pension commission's recommendations last week and announced they intend to implement all 33 points. The reform would bring a comprehensive overhaul of old-age provision affecting all generations. Vogt demanded that the sustainability factor, which dampens pension increases when the ratio of contributors to pensioners deteriorates, be reintroduced before 2032 and raised more sharply to avoid overburdening younger people.