Citizens' forum on pensions for Bremen MPs
A randomly selected citizens' forum is to be convened in the German federal state of Bremen to develop ideas for a new pension system for members of parliament. This was decided by the Constitution and Rules Committee of the Bremen Parliament on 18 20 September 2024.
70 citizens of Bremerhaven and Bremen, together with experts from the Taxpayers' Association, the Pension Insurance Association and the Trade Union Federation, are to examine models on how the pension scheme for Bremen's parliamentarians can be reorganised. The aim of the citizens' forum is to avoid the appearance that the members of parliament are deciding on their own and uncontrolled about their salaries.
Pension scheme reorganised in 2011
In 2011, the pension scheme for members of parliament was changed from a pension system paid for by the state to a funded system. As a result, MPs currently receive more than 900 euros per month for their pension scheme in addition to their remuneration. They have to invest the money in an insurance policy.
However, it has turned out that the returns later on are not as high as hoped for. Due to the low interest rates that such capital market-based products have yielded in recent years, MPs currently achieve pension entitlements of no more than 120 to 130 euros per legislative term.
Pension level too low
The constitutional law expert Philipp Austermann, who was commissioned by the Bürgerschaftskanzlei to provide an expert opinion, believes that this level is too low and recommends a return to a pension system. The MPs' pensions would then have to be raised from future budgets.
According to a report commissioned by the parliamentary administration, it is not legally possible for MPs to simply pay into the pension scheme.
Return to the previous pension system
The parliamentary groups are considering a return to the pension system that existed until 2011, which is similar to the civil service system. At that time, the basic pensions and various lump sums were combined into a standardised taxable total compensation. Since then, MPs have also received an amount that they must invest in private pension schemes for their future pension.
The federal state of Baden-Württemberg is the role model for the planned mini-public in Bremen. In 2017, the state parliament there set up a citizens' forum "Pension provision for MPs", whose participants were selected at random. The forum later cast a vote that was incorporated into the recommendations of an independent commission of experts.