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New Private Pension Law in the Federal Republic of Germany

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New Private Pension Law in the Federal Republic of Germany a flexible system leads to an increased awareness retirement-age provisions under the public and of the reality of retirement and consequently to the private programs (for the former, flexible the realization that basic decisions must be made provisions beginning with age 63 ; for the latter, well before that event. age 65). The system of retirement can be readily manip- ulated, it appears to have a noticeable effect on the retiree, and yet investigations in this area Background are lacking. Further study on the effects of different systems of retirement deserves encour- Private pension plans cover about 80,000 firms agement. with more than 12 million workers or about 60 percent of the wage and salary workers. Actual benefits paid out amounted to 2.5 billion marks in 19?Ls For the social security system’s old-age, disability, and survivors’ program, expenditures Social Security Abroad reached 66 billion marks in that year. Germany has three main types of company plans. The most prevalent is the ‘Lbalance-sheet reserve plan,” which includes about 70 percent New Private Pension Law in the of the workers covered by private pension plans. Federal Republic of Germany* Under this method, the employer can set up on his books an internal reserve to cover the expected At the end of 1974, the Parliament of the benefits (either by a transfer from profits or by Federal Republic of Germany passed a pension establishing an account for each worker). He reform law that became effective on January 1, continues, however, to use the actual funds for 1975.1 Somewhat similar to the recent United regular company operations. There is no segre- States law on private pensions-the Employee gation of funds from the general assets of the Retirement Income Security Act of 1974-the employer. Under this type of plan, before the German law regulates standards for vesting and ne\v law, the worker risked the loss of entitle- termination insurance in the case of shutdown ment if he left or was laid off before retirement. of sponsoring firms ,2 It provides for the first In addition, the fate of the benefits depended time regulations to govern private pension plans upon the welfare of the individual firm. through the establishment of statutory minimum A second type is the separate pension fund, requirements. In the past, the Government’s only similar to the pension trust funds in the United role was through the insurance law regula’ting States. This kind of fund can be arranged by one those types of plans operated through or in the or more firms. About 10 percent of the workers form of insurance companies. The law also sets covered by pension plans came under such a up a reinsurance mechanism. system. Many of the separate pension funds are The aim of the reform is to deal with three found in multiemployer plans-frequently those specific problem areas : (1) the absence of vesting, covering a branch of industry in a particular (2) benefit integration (the offset effect of in- area, such as chemicals or banking in one indi- dexed social security benefits on unindexed private vidual city. They have been used primarily for pension benefits), and (3) the imbalance between white-collar workers. The employee is granted a legal claim to benefits. * Prepared by Max Horlick, Comparative Studies, In- ternational Staff, Offlce of Research and Statistics. The third type is the provident or support 1 For background, see Max Horlick and Alfred M. fund. Although such funds number in the thou- Skolnik, Private Pension Plans in West ffermany and sands, they are generally small in size and cover Frame (Research Report No. 36), OfFice of Research and Statistics, 1971. an estimated 10 percent of the workers under *Vesting refers to the guarantee provision in pension private pension schemes. Employees do not have plans ensuring that an employee who terminates his a legal right to the pensions. employment before eligibility for regular retirement will retain his pension credits accrued from the employer’s *One U.S. dollar equaled 3.292 deutsche marks as of contributions. December 1972. a0 SOCIAL SECURITY In addition, many small and medium-sized pension guarantee plan called the Pension Insur- firms tend to, use life insurance companies for ance Association. The association is under the their funding. Formerly, when the insured worker general supervision of the Federal Office for left a firm, generally his rights to the policy Insurance Matters. In principle, all employers expired unless he had contributed to the cost. with private pension plans are to be members of the association. Those with plans operated by insurance companies or in the form of separate Vesting Provisions pension funds are, however, exempt. The monthly pension amount is guaranteed up In the past, there were no government require- to a maximum of three times the current social ments regarding vesting, and in fact very little security contribution ceiling. It should be noted vesting occurred. The new law provides for vest- that this ceiling is usually about ‘75 percent ing upon attainment of age 35 and when a worker greater than the average wage of workers in (a) has at least 10 years of service under a pension manufacturing. The social security benefit of the plan or (b) has been with the firm for at least average worker is, in turn, about 40-50 percent 12 years, including 3 years of covered service of final pay. The pension guarantee maximum under a pension plan. Under this provision, which would, therefore, be high enough to cover the affects all types of company plans, vesting was pension of all except higher-paid technical and granted immediately on passage of the law. In managerial personnel. practice, there is generally little turnover in The guarantee is financed by a contribution German industry after age 35. In fact, one survey from all nonexempt employers. These contribu- showed a turnover rate of less than 1 percent. tions covering the guarantee are intended to pay Under the new law, upon separation from a for current old-age and survivor pensions and firm, either for voluntary or involuntary reasons, for administration, and to create a reserve against 3 the eligible worker is to be given a written noti- fluctuations or other contingencies. If a company fication of the amount of his accrued pension fails, then the Pension Insurance Association will amount that will be payable at the time of his purchase life annuities for the insured workers retirement. The full pension is based on a normal from an insurance company. In case of dissolu- full career of coverage-that is, from the time of tion or liquidation of the association, the Gov- hiring in a company, presumably at age 25, to ernment-sponsored Bank for Equalization of completion at age 65. The amount of the vested Burdens will assume responsibility. accrual will be calculated on the ratio of actual covered service to the full career. A worker who has been with an employer from age 25 to age Retirement Age 65 could, for example, be eligible for a pension of 500 marks. If, however, he left work after 20 In 1973, the West German social security system years, he would be entitled to half this amount. reduced the minimum statutory retirement age from 65 to 63 and provided for “flexible” retire- ment between ages 63 and 6’7. The company plans Pension Guarantee continued to provide for payment at age 65, how- ever. The new law aligns the private to the public The law provides that pensions be guaranteed system in this regard. The private plans are against loss in the event that the company goes now also required to take into account the earlier bankrupt. Pensions, particularly under the bal- retirement age provided under the social security ance sheet reserve plan and the support fund, system for women and the long-term unemployed were not protected before the new law. It was (both at age 60). decided that this guarantee was to be implemented not through an agency of government, but through a cooperative arrangement. The German Employ- Indexing ers Association, the Association of German Indus- Employers are required to review every 3 try, and the Association of Life Insurance Com- years whether the pensions in force are to be panies established, for this purpose, a mutual (Continued on page 56) BULLETIN, JULY 1975 TABLE M-lQ.-OASDHI hospital insurance: Number of bills for inpatient short&a3 hospital 1 care approved for payment, covered days, total charges, and amounts reimbursed, by type of beneficiary and period approved, as of December 28,1974 1 - Approved bills Rospltal charges Period approved r G th:.ds, ‘@- -- Total 6 January 1976-December1976.. ......... 6,176 12.4 w3%i $939 77 1 January I971-December l97l........... 6,312 11.9 1,041 76.7 January 1972-December1972........... 7:34o:475 January 1973-December1973.. ......... y8; :t 3” 8,218.286 :Bs:: July 1973-December1973.. ............. Janwry 1974-June1974.. .............. July 1974-September1974.. ............ Persons aged 65 and over r July 1973-December1973.. ............. ,. January 1974-June1974.. .............. ,. July 1974~September1974.. ............ ,. Disability beneficiaries 0 July 1973-December1973.. ............. January 1974June 1974................ July 1974-September1974.. ............ - r General and special hospitals reporting average stays of less than 36 days. e See table M-18, footnote 1. r See table M-18, footnote 2 e See table M-18: footnote 6 4 Before January 1, 1968,excludes days in excess of 96 per beneflt period, r Seetable M-18, footnote 6 beginning January 1,1968,may include 8 lifetime reserve of 66 days, applica- e See table M-18, footnote 7. SOCIAL SECURITY ABROAD adjustment on the basis of wage changes, how- (Continued from page 39) ever, and the private pension is not indexed.
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