A total of 229,790 people in Denmark took an early retirement in Q2 2021, the highest number in almost three years, figures from Statistics Denmark have revealed.

According to Forsikring & Pension, these figures demonstrate the need for the government proposal to abolish spouse set-off for old age, senior and early retirees to be adopted.

This proposal would mean that retirees’ benefits would not be reduced while their spouse is in work.

Furthermore, Forsikring & Pension warned that the need for the change will only increase as the number of early retirees continues to rise.

“There are now almost 230,000 early retirees,” commented Forsikring & Pension head of analysis, Andreas Østergaard Nielsen. 

“This is the highest number in almost three years. This is due to the introduction of a senior disability pension with more lenient visitation requirements. 

“At the same time, the higher national pension age means that there is a smaller departure from early retirement than before.”

Nielsen warned that both private companies and public workplaces were being “hit hard” by a shortage of employees, and it is therefore an ever-increasing problem that the spouses of early retirees are being financially punished for staying in work.

He concluded: “Today, there is a risk that old-age savings will lead to set-off in public benefits for others in the household, such as early retirement and old-age pensioners. 

“So far, it has made it difficult to fully exploit the potential of retirement savings. 

“With the government's proposal, employees in more than 50,000 households will be able to save up in old-age savings without any set-off in a spouse's national, senior and early retirement pension.”

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