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While the corona pandemic dominates the public debate, completely different packages are being linked in the background. The new AHV reform (AHV 21) is one of the heaviest. Commoners want to raise the retirement age of AHV women to 65. The crux of the matter remains how much money should flow into the buffers and for how long.
While the higher retirement age saves a good 1.3 billion francs a year, the SP Minister of Social Affairs Alain Berset (48) wants to reserve around 700 million francs for compensatory measures. The social commission of the Council of States is currently putting together a bourgeois package containing significantly less compensation. There is talk of 400 to 550 million, in the worst variant even only 300 million francs. The commission wants to cover the proposal this week so that the Council of States can discuss the reform in the winter session.
1200 francs less per year
The bourgeois package will surely be bombarded by the unions and the green left parties. The Swiss Trade Union Confederation (SGB) is in the forefront against raising the retirement age for women.
Just before the commission’s decision, the SGB is fueling the debate at a press conference with new figures. You have calculated how high the average AHV pension reduction will be for women if they want to retire at age 64 in the future. The average pension of 1,754 francs per month is applied as a guide. That means: Half of the pensioners receive less AHV pension, the other half is higher.
The result: Those who retire at age 64 after the Berset reform receive between 40 and 100 francs less per month due to associated cuts. Compared to the average pension, it is 1200 francs less per year. In terms of life expectancy, women lose up to 28,500 francs.
Even with Berset’s planned buffer measures, which will run for nine years, women are worse off. The union federation calculates the minus for the transitional generation between 30 and 65 francs per month.
The union federation has also calculated what the reform means for those women who are already working until age 65 to supplement their pensions. Compared to the status quo, they too would have to expect an annual reduction of 1,200 francs. On the other hand, only a few women would benefit from an improvement in pensions; most, on the other hand, would have to expect cuts of up to CHF 123 per month.
If bourgeois tougher proposals are also achieved, things will look even bleaker for women. The Social Commission of the Council of State wants to cushion the higher retirement age of women by only four years.
“The AHV 21 reform actually leads to a reduction in pensions with the increase in the retirement age,” says SGB central secretary Gabriela Medici. “The proposal does not contain any urgent improvement needed for the situation of women.”
Pension gap between the sexes
An absurdity for the union federation. Particularly in view of the general pension situation: the AHV and the pension fund together are on average 37 percent lower than men’s pensions. The pension gap between the sexes is almost 20,000 Swiss francs a year.
This is demonstrated by a report from the Federal Social Security Office (FSIO) on the “global vision of the pension situation”, which was received by the Social Commission of the Council of States in early September.
Consequently, the new average AHV pension is currently 1,900 francs for men and 1,726 francs for women. In the second pillar, the difference is even greater: the average pension for new men is 2,752 CHF per month and the pension for women is 1,563 CHF per month. Additionally, flat-rate withdrawals for women are significantly lower.
The union chief and national councilor of the SP, Pierre-Yves Maillard (52, VD) is campaigning with all his might against the reform of the AHV. “The disastrous logic of the reduction of the old-age benefit is further accentuated by Parliament with the AHV 21,” he says. “Despite the miserable women’s pensions, women of all people should accept the pension reduction.”
Union Federation requests 13 AHV pension
Maillard not only wants to combat this “affront”, but he also wants to counter it in some other way. Faced with the fall in pension fund pensions, the union federation calls for the AHV to be expanded. For your initiative for a 13th AHV pension, more than half of the required signatures have already been collected.
He would like to finance the expansion in part with billions of National Bank profits. They currently have 84 billion francs in profit-sharing reserves in their account, according to Maillard. He makes it clear: “Also in the provision for old age, we need the perspective that things can improve.”
