Overview
- The government is pushing a pension overhaul that would change or abolish the abschlagsfreie Altersrente nach 45 Versicherungsjahren, and Labor Minister Bärbel Bas pledged trust protection for people close to retirement.
- Exact transition rules and the protected cohort cutoffs remain unresolved and will be defined in the law, but experts and constitutional case law point to a multi‑year window often cited as about five years.
- Separate measures moving forward include a confirmed GKV reform that removes Krankengeld for part‑pensioners whose Teilrente exceeds two thirds of a full pension from 1 January 2027 and a Health Ministry draft that would delay top Pflegeheim subsidy tiers to later months.
- Many beneficiaries reached 45 Versicherungsjahre with credited periods such as childcare, care, unemployment or voluntary contributions rather than 45 years of paid employment, which concentrates the reform’s distributional impacts on women and lower‑paid workers.
- Longer horizon risks include the scheduled end of the 48 percent 'Haltelinie' after 2031 and the return of the Nachhaltigkeits‑ and Beitragssatzfaktoren to the pension formula in 2032, which can dampen future pension increases even though already granted pensions cannot be reduced retroactively.