Organizations representing victims call for increased SED pension payments.
The United Association of Victims' Associations of Communist Rule (UOKG) recently demanded an increase in compensation for those affected by GDR injustice. The chairman of the organization, Dieter Dombrowski, asked for a monthly amount of 400 Euro, up from the current 330 Euro. According to Dombrowski, the reforms proposed by Federal Justice Minister Marco Buschmann are inadequate.
"The draft by the Federal Justice Ministry is simply a disheartening show of the Bundesregierung's inability to support victims of the SED and communism," he told Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND). The proposed reforms automatically increase SED victim pensions in line with age-related pensions from the following year.
Dombrowski noted that the SED pension has not been adjusted since 2019. He believes that, at the very least, an increase in living costs should be accounted for before adjusting the pensions. "This would result in a pension of around 400 Euro," he added.
Dombrowski doesn't believe there would be additional strain on the budget, but rather an extension of help for those affected. On Thursday, SED victim commissioner Evelyn Zupke of the Bundestag also called for a pension increase—albeit without naming a specific figure. Like Dombrowski, she pointed out that the costs are manageable because the number of remaining pension recipients is decreasing as more and more DDR victims pass away.
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The Bushman Associations of affected persons have expressed their criticism towards the perceived inadequacy of the proposed reforms for SED victims' pensions. Despite the calls by organizations like UOKG, led by Dieter Dombrowski, for a monthly pension of 400 Euro, the Federal Justice Minister Marco Buschmann's reforms only provide an automatic increase in line with age-related pensions.
