Overview
- SPD pension expert Annika Klose has proposed a five‑year Übergangsfrist and explicit protection for already signed altersteilzeit contracts, a plan reported by multiple outlets on Friday that would delay loss of the abschlagsfreie Frührente for many near‑retirees.
- The independent Rentenkommission recommended abolishing the abschlagsfreie Rente after 45 anrechenbare Beitragsjahre while asking the legislature to honour verfassungsrechtlichen Vertrauensschutz when it phases out the rule.
- The proposal has reopened a political split: Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Labour Minister Bärbel Bas signalled support for the commission package earlier, but three East German CDU minister‑presidents and parts of the SPD have pushed back against a rapid end to the benefit.
- IAB director Bernd Fitzenberger has offered a compromise to retain a narrowed early‑retirement option for people with at least 45 credited years plus 42 years of actual social‑insurance employment, a change that would exclude many with long credited non‑employment periods such as childrearing or care.
- Legal precedent from a 2004 Bundesverfassungsgericht decision that accepted a five‑year transition is being cited by advocates for a longer lead time and lawmakers say the debate over wording, cohort cutoffs and hardship rules remains unresolved before any bill is drafted.