Selbständige und ihre Altersvorsorge: Möglichkeiten der Analyse anhand der Mikrozensen und erste Ergebnisse

During the last few years a structural change in gainful employment is observed within the Federal Republic of Germany, which takes impact on the social security system. In this paper we try to find answers to the question, what the consequences of the substitution of dependent employment by self-employment for the organization of old-age security of self-employed are. It may be possible, that socio-political reactions are necessary to avoid a erosion of the financial base of the statutory old-age security system and material poverty of former self-employed and retired people. A fundamental analysis of the status quo – as a first step - is presented. A short overview of the available statistical data in the Federal Republic of Germany gives as main result, that only the Microzensus contains representative information both for the gainful employment and old age provision. Therefore we tried to select comprehensive information out of the Microzensus about gainful employment and the old age provision for groups of selfemployed, which are covered by obligatory old-age security systems. “Versicherte kraft Gesetz” (insured by operation of law), “Handwerker” (self-employed craftsmen), “Bezirksschornsteinfegermeister” (district master craftsmen of chimney-sweep), “Künstler und Publizisten” (artists and publicist), “Landwirte” (farmers) and “Freie Berufe” (independent profession)belong to these groups. In order to examine the validation, we have compared our results with the results of the statistics of the Verband Deutscher Rentenversicherungsträger (VDR). The results are quite unsatisfactory. On the one side, there are big difference between our results elaborated out of the Microzensus and the official statistics of the VDR. On the other side, information about groups, which are covered by other obligatory old-age security systems as the statutory one, seems not to be very valid. For example, although in the Microzensus too many self-employed declared to be insured in the statutory old-age security system, in the group of “artists and publicist” the number of people, shown as insured in the statutory old-age security system, is to low. The reasons for these differences are not clear. Methodical problems are obvious in data capture and in the identification of the self-employed by using the occupational numbers for creating the groups “insured by operation of law”, “self-employed craftsmen” etc. A further reason is supposed in the simple fact, that the persons are ignorant about their status of being compulsory or voluntary insured in the statutory old-age security system. All in all, this leads to the final appraisal, that the Microzensus-data used here are limited in analysing the statutory old-age provision of the self-employed.