30 billion euros: November 7th. is the “day of the pension gap”

Until November 7th, all income tax revenue will flow into the pension system, Agenda Austria calls for reforms

The budget estimate for 2024 envisages federal spending totaling 123.5 billion euros. This means that – with expenditure now amounting to around 30 billion euros – every fourth euro in the budget goes to pensions.

To illustrate this spending problem, the economically liberal think tank Agenda Austria has calculated that by November 7th, all income from wage taxes alone will be needed to cover this 30 billion gap. On this occasion, he is now proclaiming “Pension Gap Day” to once again point out what they believe is a great need for reform in the domestic pension system.

This “day of the pension gap” has been pushed further and further back in recent years, says agenda expert Dénes Kucsera. Before the Corona crisis in 2019, the day was August 31st. But because the need for subsidies to the pension system continues to rise, that day is now more than two months later.

The agenda’s central reform proposal is that the statutory pension system would have to be linked to increasing life expectancy. This has long been the case in Sweden, the Netherlands and Denmark. To this end, as an immediate measure, the statutory retirement age should be raised by four months every year until a starting age of 67 is reached. After that, the starting age should always automatically adapt to increasing life expectancy.