Overview
- A public appeal by 46 prominent economists on Tuesday urged the government to adopt the commission’s full 33-point package, saying partial measures would undermine fiscal sustainability and burden younger generations.
- The coalition has decided to keep minijobs for now while proposing to raise the flat payroll tax on them from 2% to 5%, and a July 2026 legal change already allows some minijobbers to become subject to compulsory pension contributions.
- An early working draft would tie some early-retirement ages, including the abschlagsfreie Schwerbehindertenrente, to the regular retirement age, which could delay earliest access for cohorts born from 1970 unless transition protections are agreed.
- The Deutsche Rentenversicherung’s spring projection estimates a preliminary 4.4% pension adjustment effective 1 July 2027, but that figure is not final and many recipients—especially those receiving Grundsicherung or Wohngeld—may see little or no net increase after offsets for benefits, taxes and insurance contributions.
- Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil and other senior ministers press to expand the insured base to include self-employed people, politicians and newly hired civil servants, while state leaders seek carve-outs, making final legal texts and cohort transition rules the decisive battleground for who will pay for reform.