From
Thomas Oechsner
In the beginning it was a good idea. As many employees as possible should make more provision for old age through their employer. Therefore, in 2002 every employee was given the right to take part of their wages, for example to put this money into a pension fund or direct insurance. The nice side effect: By paying in for a later company pension, social security contributions and taxes can be saved. What sounds like good business for the employees has a serious disadvantage: If the company pension or direct insurance is paid out, the full contribution for statutory health insurance is due above an exemption amount. Millions of company pensioners and directly insured people have been annoyed about this for years because they have much less left over from their company pension scheme than they had hoped. But now Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) has promised to take care of the problem.