CSU’s plan to expand mothers’ pensions splits conservatives ahead of Germany’s election

The plan of Germany’s Christian Social Union (CSU) party to expand the so-called mothers’ pension (Mütterrente) in the next legislative period has fractured the conservative block on a measure considered expensive and unaffordable in times of deep economic crisis, with the country’s general election approaching in February.

“There is no time for gifts [in] the worst structural economic crisis [for Germany],” Wolfgang Steiger, secretary general of the Wirtschaftsrat der CDU, a lobby close to the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party, an ally of the CSU, and representing the interests of firms, told the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper.

Steiger described the introduction of the Mütterrente in 2014 by the Grand Coalition of Social Democratic Party (SPD), and the Union, the alliance of CDU and CSU, and the first expansion of the measure in 2019, the so-called Mütterente II, backed again by the Grand Coalition, as the “prime examples of overpriced social gifts”.

With the new mothers’ pension in 2019, mothers and fathers had an additional six months of parenting time calculated as pensions for each child born before 1992.

A further expansion of the mothers’ pension “would further aggravate the already difficult financial situation of the [public] budget, and of the [first pillar manager Deutsche] Rentenversicherung, and send the wrong signal,” Steiger added.

The Union’s electoral programme does not mention plans to strengthen the Mütterrente, in which years spent raising children are taken into account when calculating pensions.

The CSU is now demanding that in the future three years of time spent raising children born before 1992 are taken into account when calculating the amount of pensions.

Currently, up to three years of time spent raising children are taken into account but for children born in 1992 or later, and a maximum of two years and six months will be credited as pension for children born before 1992.

CSU’s Alexander Dobrindt is convinced that the Mütterrente III, as the party calls the new measure, will come in the next legislative period.

According to the first pillar manager Deutsche Rentenversicherung, the new Mütterrente would cost around €4.45bn per year.

CSU’s plan translates into around a quarter of a percentage point of the contribution rate, a spokeswoman for the Deutsche Rentenversicherung told the Rheinische Post newspaper.

Around 9.8 million people would benefit from an expansion of the mothers’ pension, but the measure would have to be funded from taxes, and should not come at the expense of contributors, the spokeswoman warned.

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