Saxony: GDR pensions: Pellmann considers hardship funds to be insufficient

Leipzig (dpa / sn) - For the Saxon left-wing politician Sören Pellmann, the federal hardship fund for low-income pensioners is completely inadequate.

Saxony: GDR pensions: Pellmann considers hardship funds to be insufficient

Leipzig (dpa / sn) - For the Saxon left-wing politician Sören Pellmann, the federal hardship fund for low-income pensioners is completely inadequate. "Only a fraction of the pensioners in Saxony will receive money. The federal government's hardship fund is an alms fund for a few poor people and political insolence for the majority of the pensioners affected," Pellmann told the German Press Agency on Wednesday. A political solution is needed for all those affected.

"We are calling for a justice fund in the Bundestag that pays out at least 10,000 euros in compensation to all those entitled to claim. 32 years after reunification, there is still no justice in pensions. This open wound in East Germany must finally be healed," emphasized the member of the Bundestag.

The federal cabinet recently launched the fund, which is intended to benefit 180,000 to 190,000 needy pensioners who are on the poverty line. These include East Germans with claims from GDR times as well as Jewish quota refugees and late resettlers. Initially, one-off payments of 2,500 euros are planned. Should federal states participate, affected pensioners can hope for twice as much. Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania had already announced this.

The background is above all a decades-long dispute over certain pension entitlements from the GDR era, which were not transferred to the federal German system in 1991. Affected are, for example, supplementary pensions for former employees of the Reichsbahn or Post as well as entitlements of women who were divorced in GDR times.