["Retirement at age 58"--improvement or deterioration of living status?].

The BRD social security system contains numerous regulations concerning the smoothness of regulating social security benefits between unemployment benefit to pension benefit. Raising the retirement age for unemployed will lead to long-term unemployment or to a decreasing pension payment in the case of early retirement. In both cases the material income situation will deteriorate. Using the regulation for people who are or will be unemployed at the age 58, it can be shown that benefits were already clearly reduced before the new regulation of 14.2. 1996 come into effect-especially for those with unemployment assistance. The political objective of reducing the extent of early retirement will be paid by the unemployed themselves.