December 2017

Welfare State Reforms Seen from Below: Comparing Public Attitudes and Organized Interests in Britain and Germany

By Bernhard Ebbinghaus,‎ Elias Naumann Studying the political economy of welfare state reform, this edited collection focuses on the role of public opinion and organized interests in respect to policy change. It highlights that welfare states are hard pressed to reform in order to cope with ongoing socio-economic and demographic challenges. While public opinion is commonly seen to oppose welfare cuts and organized interests such as trade unions have tended to defend acquired social rights, this book shows that there...

October 2017

About 100,000 Greeks Receive their Pensions from the German State

100,000 Greek citizens are receiving their pensions from the German state, wrote German newspaper Rheinische Post. Rentenversicherung data shows that the number of Greek pensioners eligible for a German pension has more than doubled since 1990, the year of German reunification, to 1.76 million people, from 780,000. That amounts to 7% of all pensions in Germany. Almost one million pensions are being payed by the German Pensions Desk to pensioners from countries such as Italy (373,000); Spain (226,000); Greece (100,000); France (87,000), and Turkey...

June 2017

Germany. Merkel’s SPD Rivals Make Election Pledge to Keep Pensions Stable

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's Social Democrats (SPD) unveiled plans on Wednesday to keep pensions stable and cap contributions in an effort to win over voters in a September election and unseat conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel who is seeking a fourth term. The center-left SPD, junior party in Merkel's current right-left coalition, hopes its pension plans will help put the issue of social justice at the heart of the election, though it has not weighed very heavily so far among voters. The...