Zero round in the west, hardly any more in the east

As announced, the Federal Cabinet has decided to zero pensions in the west – salaries in the east should only increase slightly. The reason is lower wages in the Corona crisis.

As announced, the Federal Cabinet has decided on a zero round for pensioners in West Germany this year. The retirement benefits will not be increased in July – as has been the case in previous years. In the east, too, there should be only a small increase of 0.72 percent.

In mathematical terms, the pension should even fall

The reason is the corona pandemic, as Minister of Social Affairs Hubertus Heil (SPD) said. The development of the pension is linked to the wages – and they had decreased on average in the past year. In purely arithmetical terms, the salaries for the more than 21 million pensioners in Germany would even have to fall by 3.25 percent. The statutory pension guarantee rules out a reduction in pensions, which is why salaries in the West remain at their current level. In the east, however, they are rising slightly because the pension value is to be gradually brought into line with that in the west by 2024. For the last time, a pension increase was canceled after the financial crisis in 2010. Since then, salaries have risen annually. In July of last year, pensions in the west rose by 3.45 percent and in the east by 4.2 percent, because the good wage development of 2019 was decisive.