More and more German pensioners forced to work
The number of working senior citizens has increased significantly in a ten-year comparison. This is shown by statistics from the employment agency. Social organisations observe this development with concern.
Published: June 8, 2022, 11:48 am
Retirees deliver newspapers, give private lessons, work as drivers or clean: In Schleswig-Holstein, more and more people of retirement age are forced to work. The NDR has analysed figures from the Federal Employment Agency with the most recent data from September 2021, when there were around 39 000 employees in Schleswig-Holstein who were at least 67 years old.
In September 2011, the number was still around 27 000. In a ten-year comparison, the number of working seniors has thus gone up significantly.
In 2020, the average pension of a woman in Schleswig-Holstein was 767 euros per month. Men received significantly more: their average pension was 1269 euros. This is according to statistics from the German Pension Insurance. Accordingly, senior women are more often affected by old-age poverty than senior men.
According to the Northern Statistical Office, more older people live in Schleswig-Holstein today than ten years ago. But at the same time, the proportion of those who earn extra money has risen from 4,9 to 6,3 percent, according to NDR calculations.
What also emerges from the figures of the employment agency in Schleswig-Holstein is that most of the working seniors are marginally employed, i.e. have a mini-job. Only about one in five pensioners who earned extra money in September 2021 was in employment subject to social insurance contributions.
For social associations, this development is fundamentally a cause for concern. “Most of these people see themselves forced to earn extra money,” says Ronald Manzke, managing director at VdK Nord. Admittedly, there are pensioners who want to continue working for fun. “But many actually need it for their livelihood. That they can buy food and medicine at all. That they can afford their flat,” Manzke explained.
According to VdK Nord, when older people have to continue working out of financial necessity, it is often at the expense of their health. The association demanded that the pension level be raised to well over 50 percent. At the same time, however, the standard retirement age should not be raised.
The Schleswig-Holstein Social Association in Germany (SoVD) also criticised the government. “If a 70-year-old still has to deliver newspapers out of economic hardship or a 70-year-old ‘collects’ shopping trolleys in discounters, there is something wrong in our society,” the regional chairman Alfred Bornhalm said in response to a question from NDR Schleswig-Holstein.
Some seniors, he explained, continue to work out of shame in order not to have to apply for basic security on top of their meagre pensions. “This is still seen as a stigma among pensioners.”
All rights reserved. You have permission to quote freely from the articles provided that the source (www.freewestmedia.com) is given. Photos may not be used without our consent.
Consider donating to support our work
Help us to produce more articles like this. FreeWestMedia is depending on donations from our readers to keep going. With your help, we expose the mainstream fake news agenda.
Keep your language polite. Readers from many different countries visit and contribute to Free West Media and we must therefore obey the rules in, for example, Germany. Illegal content will be deleted.
If you have been approved to post comments without preview from FWM, you are responsible for violations of any law. This means that FWM may be forced to cooperate with authorities in a possible crime investigation.
If your comments are subject to preview by FWM, please be patient. We continually review comments but depending on the time of day it can take up to several hours before your comment is reviewed.
We reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive, contain slander or foul language, or are irrelevant to the discussion.

Thousands of Flemish farmers block roads in Brussels against nitrogen policy
BrusselsMore than 2500 farmers from Belgium's Dutch-speaking Flanders region gathered at Brussels' central Arts-Loi street and blocked roads with tractors toward Brussels to protest the regional government's plan to limit nitrogen emissions.

Orban: EU energy sanctions costing citizens billions
BudapestHungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has warned that some western states could soon send troops to Ukraine. He also criticized the fact that the EU sanctions against Russia had cost Hungarian taxpayers tens of billions of euros.

Italy: New leader of the Social Democrats is one of Soros’ ‘preferred politicians’
RomeDuring the election campaign, Elly Schlein presented herself as the standard-bearer of the poorest. However, her background and previous work raise doubts about her honesty.

UK greenhouses shut down due to high energy costs
LondonIn Great Britain, a particularly depressing facet of the crisis is now showing its first contours - and thus anticipating what is likely to happen in other European countries in the near future: because of the exploding energy prices, agriculture is being strangled and fresh produce has to be rationed.

Lisbon opens borders to all Portuguese speakers
LisbonNot only the German and Italian governments keep opening new paths for immigration. Portugal, too, has opened a Pandora's box and is paving the way for possibly millions of non-European immigrants to the EU – something which is not mentioned by the mainstream media.

Illegal immigration to Italy has reached its highest level ever
RomeIn Italy, despite the overwhelming right-wing electoral success in September, there is still nothing to be seen of the promised asylum turnaround – on the contrary. Giorgia Meloni has been in office for five months, but the arrivals of migrants in Italy have doubled compared to the previous year.

Dismantling diplomacy with ‘feminist foreign policy’
BudapestGerman Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) wants to counter German security issues abroad with feminist politics. Gender training, LGBTQ events and quotas are now part of their new guidelines, which are intended to bring about "cultural change". The German ambassador to Hungary, Julia Gross, provided an embarrassing example.

Germans demand investigation of Nord Stream sabotage
BerlinAfter the sensational revelations by US investigative reporter Seymour Hersh about the perpetrators of the Nord Stream attacks on September 26, 2022, the German government has remained silent. It does not want to comment on Hersh's research results, according to which the pipelines were blown up by Americans and Norwegians.

Macron mulling withdrawal of Putin’s Legion of Honour award
ParisAt the end of Jacques Chirac's term in 2007, France and Russia still maintained cordial relations. During his speech at a tripartite summit, the French president had even mentioned bilateral relations that were "excellent in all respects, particularly in the fields of energy, infrastructure and aeronautics".