Prof. Dr. Simone SchergerIn their coalition contract, the parties of the governing Grand Coalition had agreed upon establishing a governmental commission on pensions. It consists of representatives of employers and trade unions, of members of the Bundestag and academic experts. The Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs now has appointed this commission consisting of ten members. Simone Scherger from SOCIUM is one of these members.
The aim of the commission is, according to the federal government, to ensure that the German pension system is organized in a just and reliable way for all generations. To this end, it is necessary to ascertain its sustainability and further development with regard to the statutory pension insurance as well as the second and third pension pillars - occupational and private pensions. In the two years to come, the commission is tasked to develop corresponding political options for the years after 2025. On May 3rd, 2018, Federal Minister Hubertus Heil officially appointed the members of the commission. They will start their work in June.
Among the three academic members, Simone Scherger is the only sociologist. Since April 2018 she has been Professor of Sociology with a special focus on social policy and the life course. The professorship is an endowed chair supported by the "Fördernetzwerk Interdisziplinäre Sozialpolitik" of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. In her research, Simone Scherger focuses on the relationship between life courses and social policies. Concrete topics are, for example, the social risks of atypical employment and new family forms, as well as the effects of social policy reforms (for example in the areas of pensions or employment) on individual life courses. Simone Scherger is especially interested in how specific groups - like women, migrants, people partially incapacitated for work, or free lancers and small self-employed - cope with social risks in their daily life styles and biographical decisions. From 2010 to 2017, Simone Scherger was head of the Emmy Noether research group on "Paid employment beyond pension age in Germany and the UK".
Contact:
Prof. Dr. Simone Scherger
SOCIUM Research Center on Inequality and Social Policy
Mary-Somerville-Straße 5
28359 Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-58569
E-Mail: simone.scherger@uni-bremen.de
