Overview
- Annika Klose, who proposed the plan Friday, recommended a five-year transition to end the penalty-free early retirement available after 45 credited contribution years.
- The expert pension commission had urged abolition of the 45-year rule while saying changes must respect constitutional trust‑protection, leaving the exact timetable undecided.
- The proposal has deepened coalition and regional splits: Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Labor Minister Bärbel Bas had backed the commission but several eastern CDU state leaders and parts of the SPD now resist a rapid end.
- Compromise models are circulating — IAB director Bernd Fitzenberger favors keeping a narrowed benefit for people with at least 42 years of actual social‑insurance employment while Martin Werding suggests a shorter 1–3 year phase — and CDU voices like Pascal Reddig press for the earliest possible abolition to contain pension costs.
- Key legal and practical stakes include a 2004 Federal Constitutional Court precedent that accepted a five‑year transition, demands to protect existing Altersteilzeit (part‑time/partial retirement) contracts that can run up to ten years, and the wider fiscal effect that any delay will raise pension expenditure and contribution pressure.