German Chancellor Olaf Scholz pledged on Wednesday that his government will work to ensure that young people can be confident that they will receive their state pension after they retire.
“The fact that we want to guarantee a stable pension level in Germany is one of the most important plans of this government,” Scholz said during the debate on his coalition’s budget proposals in parliament.
The country’s 17-year-olds, who are now leaving school and will have to pay pension contributions for fifty years, must know what they can count on in the future, the Chancellor said.
“The most important asset that many people in our country have is their pension rights, their pension insurance,” he added.
Young people therefore need a ‘clear explanation’, and this government wants to give them that.
“We guarantee this security for our citizens,” Scholz emphasized.
Scholz also pledged to do everything possible to support families in the country and to continue expanding childcare and daycare facilities.
The government is spending billions of euros on these efforts, he said.
At the same time, the Chancellor stressed that he wants to offer older people more flexibility in their old age and that he wants to adjust policies to make it easier for older people to continue working into old age, if they wish.