Editing Willy Brandt (section)

==== Retirement ====
The Pension Reform Law (1972) guaranteed all retirees a minimum pension regardless of their contributions<ref name="willy-brandt.org">{{cite web |url=http://www.willy-brandt.org/bwbs_biografie/The_first_policy_statement_B403.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110724201622/http://www.willy-brandt.org/bwbs_biografie/The_first_policy_statement_B403.html |archive-date=24 July 2011 |title=August 1970: The first policy statement |publisher=Bundeskanzler-Willy-Brandt-Stiftung |date=28 October 1969 |access-date=14 November 2012}}</ref> and institutionalized the norm that the standard pension (of average earners with forty years of contributions) should not fall below 50% of current gross earnings.<ref name="Flora"/> The 1972 pension reforms improved eligibility conditions and benefits for nearly every subgroup of the West German population.<ref name="autogenerated6"/> The income replacement rate for employees who made full contributions was raised to 70% of average earnings. The reform also replaced 65 as the mandatory retirement age with a "retirement window" ranging between 63 and 65 for employees who had worked for at least thirty-five years. Employees who qualified as disabled and had worked for at least thirty-five years were extended a more generous retirement window, which ranged between the ages of 60 and 62. Women who had worked for at least fifteen years (ten of which had to be after the age of 40) and the long-term unemployed were also granted the same retirement window as the disabled. In addition, there were no benefit reductions for employees who had decided to retire earlier than the age of 65.<ref>{{harvp|Silvia|Stolpe|2007}}</ref> The legislation also changed the way in which pensions were calculated for low-income earners who had been covered for twenty-five or more years. If the pension benefit fell below a specified level, then such workers were allowed to substitute a wage figure of 75% of the average wage during this period, thus creating something like a minimum wage benefit.<ref>{{harvp|Williamson|Pampel|2002}}</ref> According to one study, the 1972 pension reform "enhanced" the reduction of poverty in old age.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lse.ac.uk/europeanInstitute/research/hellenicObservatory/pdf/pensions_conference/Hinrichs.pdf |title=The Politics of Pension Reform in Germany |website=Lse.ac.uk |access-date=17 April 2017 |archive-date=7 April 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170407083756/http://www.lse.ac.uk/europeanInstitute/research/hellenicObservatory/pdf/pensions_conference/Hinrichs.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Voluntary retirement at 63 with no deductions in the level of benefits was introduced,<ref name="autogenerated6">{{harvp|Mares|2006}}</ref> together with the index-linking of war victims' pensions to wage increases.<ref name="Radice"/> Guaranteed minimum pension benefits for all West Germans were introduced,<ref name="socsci" /> along with automatic pension increases for war widows (1970).<ref name="hdg.de"/> Fixed minimum rates for women in receipt of very low pensions were also introduced, together with equal treatment for war widows.<ref name="MyLife">{{harvp|Brandt|1992}}</ref> Improvements in pension provision were made for women and the self-employed,<ref>{{harvp|Blackburn|2003}}</ref> a new minimum pension for workers with at least twenty-five years' insurance was introduced,<ref name="Walker"/> faster pension indexation was implemented, with the annual adjustment of pensions brought forward by six months,<ref name="bpb.de"/> and the Seventh Modification Law (1973) linked the indexation of farmers' pensions to the indexation of the general pension insurance scheme.<ref name="Flora"/>

A new pension for "severely handicapped" persons was introduced in 1972,<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eCDJ8OAKjygC&q=german%20pension%20handicapped%20persons%201972&pg=PA142|title=Reforming Early Retirement in Europe, Japan and the USA|first=Bernhard|last=Ebbinghaus|date=20 July 2006|publisher=OUP Oxford|via=Google Books|isbn=9780199286119}}</ref> along with occupational injury annuities<ref>Unemployment in Theory and Practice edited by Thomas Lange</ref> and a special pension for long-standing insurant from the age of 63 and a pension due to "limited earning capacity" from the age of 62.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rE1BAwAAQBAJ&q=german%20widows%20pension%201972&pg=PA18|title=Sustainability of the German Pension Scheme: Employment at Higher Ages and Incentives for Delayed Retirement|first=Lewicki, Maria|last=Patricia|date=25 March 2014|publisher=KIT Scientific Publishing|via=Google Books|isbn=9783731501718}}</ref> In addition, a special pension benefit was introduced for workers aged 60 and above after unemployment.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QILX3GWEP5kC&q=german%20unemployment%20benefits%20age%2060%201972&pg=PA46|title=Aging and Work|first=Masaharu|last=Kumashiro|date=2 September 2003|publisher=CRC Press|isbn=9780203218556|via=Google Books}}</ref> Under the Severely Handicapped Persons Act of April 1974, a seriously disabled person could retire early on an old age pension at the age of 62 years, provided that he "complied with the other provisions of the legislation on pension insurance".<ref name="aei.pitt_c"/>