Descendants have to pay for themselves at an older age: the more children, the higher the pension

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Those who do not have children should receive a lower pension. And the more children a person raises, the higher the pension should be in old age, economists demand. After all, those who raise children contribute to the community at their own expense. After all, today’s children are tomorrow’s AHV contributors.

And those who can’t have children?

A child-dependent pension, as proposed by economists according to the “NZZ am Sonntag”, does not seem fair to couples who do not want children. One may wonder: should women and men whose desire to have children remain unfulfilled also be penalized with a lower pension?

This can be counteracted: childless people do not have to bear the costs of offspring. According to figures from the canton of Zurich, a child costs between 1,000 and 1,600 francs per month. Anyone who is childless – whether planned or not – could invest the amount monthly. He or she could have saved for old age instead of having other people’s children pay the AHV.

In fact, the wage losses that parents have to bear are immense: if the mother or father or both parents reduce the workload and thus block career opportunities, they have earned a lot less throughout their working life.

A million loss

An average couple with two children is “a million francs” worse off when they reach retirement age, taking into account benefits and allowances, than a comparable couple without children, explains Veronica Weisser, UBS economist and one of the most renowned pension experts in the world. Switzerland “NZZ am Sonntag” writes.

But it’s not just about a fairer balance between those with kids and those without kids. The falling number of children also presents our pension system with a financially difficult task: one in four women now has no children.

Not only AHV affected

According to the Federal Statistical Office, the average number of children per woman in Switzerland will drop to 1.39 in 2022. If the birth rate remains at such a low level, it will lead to a “significant increase in funding bottlenecks in our social system” says Weisser.

And she points out that the low number of births is not only putting the AHV in trouble, health insurers and care providers also face major challenges as more and more sick seniors fight against a declining number of young people.

Nevertheless, center group leader Philipp Matthias Bregy (45) points out: “I see this proposal rather skeptically, even if it sounds tempting at first sight.” According to him, all injustices in the AHV must first be eliminated “before introducing new differentiations based on marital status or living conditions”, the National Council emphasizes. (pt)

Source:Blick