FRANCE The

Figure 8: Average amounts paid under current pensions in euro as at 31.12.2000 (new L nder)
719
626
invalidity pensions
978 963
688
retirement pension
following
employment
• Pensioners who retired early following unemployment receive
very large pensions, relatively speaking, in Western Germany in
particular. Most of them were able to retire early without any
reduction in pension, and they frequently came from larger
companies where good wages were paid;
• By far the lowest pensions in Western Germany are received by
those who did not retire until they were 65. Many of them could
not afford to retire earlier owing to low earnings and a low level
of contribution payments, sometimes because of a lengthy
period of self-employment.
This overview of average payments may well conceal a major
imbalance. In fact, there are large groups who receive very small
pensions. Under blue-collar worker pensions insurance, 22% of men
and 88% of women receive less than €500 per month. Under whitecollar
worker insurance, the equivalent percentages are 10.9% of
men and 43.5% of women. These large numbers of small pensions
could lend support to the conjecture that there is a substantial
amount of poverty in old age in Germany. This supposition cannot,
however, be confirmed. Actual income conditions can only be
calculated on the basis of households. Only at this level can the
extent to which small pensions are supplemented by the partner’s
income be determined. For example, the level of dependence on
income support among older people is not very high. At the end of
2001, there were 200,786 persons aged 65+ dependent on income
support. Of these, 66.6% were women (Federal Statistical Office
2002). The income support rate among older people was 1.5%, as
against 3.3% for the population as a whole.
Among older households, the following groups in particular are
poorly provided for (Bäcker et al. 2000: 306 ff.):
• Former blue-collar households in which the man’s earnings were
low and the woman was not economically active or was only
minimally economically active;
• Single women or widows from the first group;
• People who were formerly self-employed, who have not built up
their own retirement provision;
• Immigrants who came to Germany only in middle age or later.
Men W omen
Spring 2003 | European Employment Observatory Review 91
730
retirement owing
to severe
disability
1087
671
retirement pension
for the long-term
insured
1092
577
standard retirement
pension at 65
Trends
Source: Bäcker et al. 2000
In contrast, pensioners who have assets and have several sources of
income are relatively well provided for.
3 Policy
The figures set out in section 2 for employment and unemployment
among older workers, for pension take-up and pension levels, reflect
above all the former policy of managing radical structural changes
in trade and industry via the retirement of older workers from
working life. The change in policy tentatively initiated in recent
years owing to the demographic shift has not yet had an impact on
the labour market, one reason for this being that with the
introduction of partial retirement, new paths to earlier retirement
from working life were opened up. In this section, we shall describe
some of the main trends in the development of statutory and
collectively agreed framework conditions for the employment of
older workers and for their transition to retirement.
3.1 Reform of pension systems
Owing to the demographic trend, in the 1990s the retirement age was
raised and pension reductions were built into early retirement. The
most important changes are summarised in Figure 9:
• Since 2002, retirement on the grounds of unemployment with no
reduction in pension has been possible only at the age of 65.
However, early retirement is still possible from the age of 60, but
only with a reduction in pension of 3.6% per year (a maximum of
18.6%);
• As from 2005, women will no longer be able to retire on a full
pension before the age of 65;
• As from 2004, the severely disabled will no longer be able to retire
on a full pension before the age of 63;
• Since 2002, long-term insured persons have no longer been able
to retire early on a full pension.
Transition periods have been built into the introduction of these
changes, and are indicated in Figure 9. These changes mean that