(de-news.net) – Christine Fuchsloch, President of the Federal Social Court, has expressed the view that an increase in the statutory retirement age beyond the current threshold of 67 years would, in the long term, become unavoidable. She emphasized that – although the pay-as-you-go pension model remained a fundamentally robust and time-tested approach – it was increasingly being strained by demographic developments, particularly the aging population and declining birth rates. These demographic pressures, she implied, were placing considerable demands on the sustainability of the system.

Fuchsloch further observed that the existing regulatory framework governing retirement provisions was only guaranteed until the year 2031, as stipulated in the current coalition agreement. She argued that any decisions regarding future adjustments would be contingent upon a range of interrelated factors. Among these, she identified immigration and the overall capacity for economic value creation as particularly influential. In addition to these variables, she proposed that policymakers might also need to explore alternative adjustment mechanisms. One such possibility, she suggested, could involve reconsidering the link between pension payments and wage developments, potentially replacing it with a model based solely on inflation compensation.

Turning to the topic of citizen’s income, Fuchsloch called for a more measured and fact-based public debate. She acknowledged that certain segments of the social security system were in need of reform, yet she rejected the notion that the current situation constituted a crisis. In her view, the alarmist rhetoric that had emerged in some quarters was exaggerated and did not accurately reflect the actual state of affairs.