Status: 13.08.2021 3:42 p.m.
According to a study, civil servants live more than four years longer than manual workers. For women there is a difference of three years. The social association VdK therefore warns of injustice in terms of retirement age.
According to a study by the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), civil servants live on average more than four years longer than workers. The differences are particularly large among men, according to a previously unpublished study reported by “Spiegel”.
65-year-old officials could expect to live another 21.5 years. Employees of the same age and the self-employed are likely to hope for an average of 19 more years, for blue-collar workers it is only 15.9 years.
Similar differences in women
For women, the differences between these occupational groups are similar. Civil servants live an average of three years longer than female workers.
The study was carried out on behalf of the social association VdK. For this, the DIW used the household survey of the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) and compared it with official mortality tables.
Fundamental problem of the pension system?
The finding that the differences in life expectancy are not random but also have to do with social status suggests a fundamental problem in the pension system: inequality in life incomes is exacerbated by unequal life expectancy.
VdK President Verena Bentele told “Spiegel” that the social association was strictly against a general increase in the standard retirement age. Even now, only a minority manage to work full-time up to the age of 65, “let alone 67”. She therefore advocates improvements to the disability pension.