Will the widow's pension be abolished? Expert with drastic suggestion

wmn Will the widow's pension be abolished? Expert with drastic suggestion Article by Franziska Klemmer • 3 hours. When a spouse dies, it is always a tragic loss for those left behind. In addition to the grief, there are often financial worries. In order to at least alleviate financial hardships somewhat, the statutory pension insurance grants the surviving spouse a widow's pension. However, economist Monika Schnitzer believes that widowers in Germany could soon face big changes, as she would like to abolish widow's pensions. Here you can find all the details on this topic. The large baby boomer generation is about to retire. With the loss of many workers, the economy in Germany is threatened with a massive shortage of skilled workers and the pension system will be placed under enormous strain. For this reason, Monika Schnitzer, an economist and chairwoman of the Wirtschaftsweise, is campaigning for the abolition of the so-called widow's pension, as Der Spiegel reports. “The current regulation reduces the incentive to take up employment,” explains the chairwoman of the economists. In addition, individual contributors would help finance pension entitlements for non-working people who do not pay into the system themselves, said Schnitzer. Instead of the current form, she proposes so-called pension splitting as an alternative regulation. After marriage, the pension rights acquired by both partners are divided equally. In the event of the death of the partner, the surviving dependent receives half of the jointly acquired entitlements as well as the entitlements that were acquired before the marriage. Pension splitting vs. widow’s pension – what’s the difference? Pension splitting enables pension entitlements acquired during a marriage or civil partnership to be divided equally. If the partner dies, the surviving dependent receives 50 percent of the joint entitlements as well as his/her own entitlements from the time before the marriage. If a partner has not made any contributions, there will be no additional pension payments in the event of death. This model contrasts with the large and small widow's pension we are familiar with. With the large widow's pension, you receive 55 percent of the deceased partner's pension that he or she would normally have received. The small widow's pension is 25 percent. These entitlements apply to all contributions made during the life of the partner, even if no own contributions were paid. Statement about abolition causes heated discussions The social association VdK firmly rejects the demands of the economists. VdK President Verena Bentele emphasized to the “Münchner Merkur” and the “tz” that she “really couldn’t believe” Schnitzer’s proposals for nationwide pension splitting. She emphasizes that widow's pensions remain an effective tool in the fight against poverty among women. Bentele further explained: “Many women could not and cannot acquire sufficient pension rights due to involuntary part-time work and unpaid care of children and dependent relatives.” If the pension insurance wants to achieve a higher number of contributors and a higher pension level for everyone, “we have to go elsewhere start”.