Poverty risk could increase for German pensioners if pension level continues to fall: study
The poverty risk rate for people aged 65 and over would rise by up to 20 percent if the German pension level continued to fall and the framework conditions did not change, according to a study by the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) published on Wednesday.
The DIW study showed that under current laws, the German pension level is expected to fall continuously to around 43 percent in 2045 from 48 percent today.
Since the early 2000s, Germany’s pension level has fallen by around 10 percent. Without this reduction, the study authors estimated that poverty among the older population would have been “significantly lower”.
“The danger of poverty in old age threatens to increase as a result of falling pension levels,” said DIW pension expert Johannes Geyer and one of the study authors. Old-age poverty in Germany is affecting people who have less than 60 percent of the median income at their disposal and the study found a “strong correlation between pension levels and poverty risk”.
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