Veil, Mechthild <br/><br/>
The Relationship between Family and Pension Policy: The Case of Germany 

 -  2011.<br/>							 
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<br/><br/> This study demonstrates the possibilities for integrating family and pensions policies with reference to the current situation in Germany. Based on the recognition that the German system, like the French system, does not only depend on the beneficiary’s employment status, but also takes into account family-related benefits, this contribution suggests to what extent family and pensions policy influence, or could influence, each other positively – that is to say, in a way that increases pension funding. Only when family policy reinforces the idea of bringing together of the labour market, gainful employment and family life, can family benefits improve women’s lot regarding pension law. Family policy in West Germany – which has traditionally been behind the times relative to changes in gender relations, the expansion of the welfare state, and the necessary professionalisation of childcare – could neither reverse the trend of lower birth rates, nor prevent well-educated women from entering the labour market and improving women’s pension status. Following a short presentation of the architecture of the German three-pillar pension system and the gender gap among old-age pensioners, this study shows that family policy interventions still do not provide adequate financial incentives in pension law for working parents’ efforts to combine work and childcare. Taking the example of the flagship reforms, the law on the strengthening of childcare for young children (TAG), and the reform of parental benefits (Elternzeitgesetz), it is proven that these measures have introduced a sense of the labour market and of economic logic into family policy for the first time. This work-oriented change in family policy is perceived as an opportunity to adopt an alternative pensions policy. Until now, however, the family policy debate has hardly touched upon pensions policy, and conversely the better integration of family and pensions policies is not cited as part of the rationale for pensions policy reform. In both policy fields the supporting pillar of equality is missing, which would tailor benefits in favour of combining work and childcare to the needs of employees. Family policy models point to a situation of “normative indecision” as regards moves towards more or less equality.