....Divergence and Convergence of Evaluation Methods Used by the Federal Statistical Office (“Statistisches Bunde-samt”) and by the „Zentrale Zulagenstelle für Altersvermögen - ZfA“ (Central Allow-ance Authority for State Subsidized Pensions)
Authors: Stefan Dittrich, Ulrike Gerber, Christian Rieckhoff/Locations: Wiesbaden, Berlin
The so-called „Riesterrente“ is an important instrument of supplementary pension provision. The state promotes this specific type of privately funded old-age provision with special tax supplements ("Altersvorsorgezulage”) and with a tax deduction for special expenses (“Sonderausgabenabzug”). The particular promotion of the “Ri-esterrente” coincides with a strong public interest in the results achieved, especially regarding the number of “Riester-savers” and their socio-demographic features. Both the Federal Statistical Office (“Statistisches Bundesamt”) and the „Zentrale Zulagenstelle für Altersvermögen - ZfA“ (central allowance authority for state subsi-dized pensions, organizationally attached to the Federal German Pension Office, “Deutsche Rentenversicherung Bund”) evaluate the respective process data statis-tically.
The article focuses on the following questions: Do both institutions arrive at the same conclusions? What are the discrepancies and where do they result from? Fi-nally, the authors comment on the chances and limits of methodical rapproache-ment.
