A growing number of elderly residents of Germany are forced to receive unemployment benefits and face a small pension
Thus, in 2010, the number of recipients of the Hartz IV social benefit aged over 55 was 256,819, reports Russkaya Germaniya. By the end of November 2015, this figure had grown to 320,853, or almost 25%! In fact, this number is even larger. The point is that those recipients of 'social welfare' who have turned 58 and have been without work for a year are no longer counted in the official statistics. They are transferred to the category of people receiving basic old-age security. There are currently 162,703 such people.
Meanwhile, over the past five years, the total number of residents of Germany who are forced to rely solely on state financial support has decreased by 14% to 186,914 people. But this decline, which occurred against the backdrop of significant cyclical growth, as noted by the Left party parliamentarian, has absolutely not affected older workers in Germany. 'Thus, poverty in old age is effectively programmed for hundreds of thousands of residents of Germany,' emphasizes the Bundestag deputy. At the same time, the parliamentarian cites data from the Federal Statistical Agency, according to which the number of recipients of basic security has increased from 342,855 to 511,915 people over the past ten years.
In Germany, there are also more and more people who receive minimum pensions and are therefore forced to work even in old age. If in 2003 there were 533,000 workers over 65 in the country, now there are more than 900,000.
This trend is being recorded with great concern by the Social Association VdK. 'Today, the average pension level is only 47.5% of the average salary in the country, and by 2030 this figure will even drop to 43%,' the association's experts warn. According to them, if the current situation continues, even those residents of Germany who today earn an average salary 'will have to face significant limitations in retirement life.'