SPD scraps retirement age rise
Sunday 25 November 2012
Printable
EmailGermany's biggest opposition party U-turned over proposals to raise the retirement age from 65 to 67 at the weekend, admitting the policy was electoral poison.
A conference of Peer Steinbrueck's centre-left Social Democrats endorsed new policies to bolster pensions on Saturday as it gears up for national elections in 2013.
The Social Democrats were in government when they originally decided to gradually increase the retirement age, starting this year and finishing in 2029.
The policy was never popular with the party's grassroots and has now been suspended in favour of a new proposal to allow people who pay into the pension system for at least 45 years to retire on a full pension.
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