[Monetary security for the aged--concepts of political distribution goals and income-related effects of pension security systems].

This contribution discusses some theoretical aspects related to the question of whether, and in what way, a uniform social security target has been defined for the monetary old-age protection in the Federal Republic of Germany, and to what extent different pension schemes fulfill this target. The analysis leads to the conclusion that only a "target range", and not a defined value, has been developed for the indicator "individual replacement rate". The investigation into the effects of old-age pension schemes on income shows that, even after benefit cuts, public sector employees, on the whole, are better protected than employees in the private sector. A future, detailed empirical analysis would have to investigate individual social groups.