To create incentives for longer working hours, people who continue to work in addition to their pension after the target retirement age will no longer have to pay pension insurance premiums up to a certain income limit. This has been agreed with the Green coalition partner, ÖVP club chairman August Wöginger announced together with ÖVP chairman of the Seniors Association Ingrid Korosec at a press conference on Tuesday.
In concrete terms, the employee’s share of pension insurance premiums should be eliminated up to an income equal to twice the marginal income limit. Currently this limit would be around 1000 euros. Over a year, working retirees would save about 1,200 euros in premiums, says Wöginger. The measure will initially be limited to two years and will be extensively evaluated in 2025.
At the same time, the bonus for people who do not retire after reaching the statutory retirement age and continue to work will be increased from 4.2 percent to 5.1 percent per year. After the penalty for early retirement had already been increased to 5.1 percent, the bonus-malus system is now compensated by increasing the bonuses for later retirement, according to the ÖVP club chairman, “working longer pays off”.
A hardship rule is also intended to prevent harsh consequences if the marginal income limit is slightly exceeded when working in addition to the corridor pension. The government also wants to enshrine better information for people before their retirement in law.
Part-time employees must be informed about full-time positions
To make full-time work easier, part-time employees will in future have the legal right to be informed in a timely manner when full-time vacancies are advertised within the company. If this does not happen and it is therefore not possible to apply for the full-time position, the employees must be entitled to compensation of 100 euros.
The government’s initiative proposals should be submitted to the National Council in November and, if possible, decided before the turn of the year, as Wöginger explained. He declined to say how much the lost pension insurance contributions would amount to, but emphasized that the revenue shortfall would be covered by tax revenue.
Senior spokeswoman ÖVP praises “win-win situation”
ÖVP spokeswoman Korosec spoke of “a good day for pensioners”. The measures are “a first step, but an important step”. The decline in pension insurance premiums is a “win-win situation” both for retirees and for the labor market, where there is a shortage of skilled workers, Korosec said.
Source: Krone
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