Thoughts on a long-term reform of pension insurance for civil servants

Due to demographic change, all pension insurance systems are being scrutinised. Starting from the assumption that it is not practical to include civil servants in the statutory pension insurance, Dr. Eckart Bomsdorf, University of Cologne, developed models that rethink the pension entitlements of civil servants. The basic idea is to include the entire professional career in the determination of the retirement pension. The results show that savings are possible here of an order of magnitude of 20% on a long-term basis. The models are socially just in that they reduce the pension entitlements of low-income civil servants less than high-income officials, both in relative and absolute terms. (Together with other measures, such as an increase in the retirement age, slower increase in pension entitlements, reduction of the crediting of educational periods and similar items as determinants of pension entitlements and complete elimination of the 13th retirement payment per year, the long-term burden of pension obligations can be kept in check. It should also be examined whether a company-type pension scheme should be offered to civil servants.)