Life Expectancy Over 90 Today, Retirement at 70 Tomorrow? A Visionary, Predictive Brief Analysis

Life expectancy is rising from year to year in Germany. This also applies to the life expectancy of pensioners, which means that individuals are claiming pensions for longer, although pension funds are not receiving any extra payment on the revenue side. Capital-funded, private pension funds compensate for this effect with lower pension payments or higher contributions; while this phenomenon has been largely ignored by statutory pension schemes to date. In the view of Eckhart Bomsdorf, University of Cologne, rising life expectancy cannot merely be reflected in people claiming pensions for longer, but should also impact their working lives. The statutory retirement age for a state pension, which is also referred to as the legal retirement age, should be adjusted in the long term. It could be lastingly linked to developments in life expectancy; which would result in the retirement age rising to 69 or 70 in the long-term. This should be preceded in the short to mid-term by greater flexibility in the actual retirement age and an adjustment of the additional income ceiling.