Die Aktienrente der Bundesregierung: Zielsetzung, Konzept, Gestaltungsfragen und Würdigungen

Abstract

Abstract The statutory pension insurance in Germany is facing a massive financing problem. The background are demographic developments with a clearly aging population and the concept of „current income financing” – meaning that a decreasing number of people of working age have to pay the pension for an increasing number of people of retirement age with their social security premiums. Likewise the federal government set “stop bars” as political objectives, according to which premiums shall not rise above a certain level, pensions not fall below a certain level and the retirement age not be increased. With this in mind, in order to stabilize the statutory pension insurance, the government is planning to introduce partial capital cover. Hence, the federal government is to provide credit-financed “generational capital” of initially EUR 10 billion, which is to be gradually increased in the following years in order to invest it in the global stock market. The revenues and surplusses are intended to dampen future increases in premiums or to reduce the annual federal grants – currently in triple digit billions of Euros – to the statutory pension insurance. The article briefly presents the background to the pension problem in Germany and the basic points of the new concept of “stock pension”. Subsequently, open design issues are addressed, and ultimately a critical appraisal of the government’s concept of pension support, based on so-called “generational capital”, is made.