The German statutory pension insurance must keep a reserve, the Nachhaltigkeitsrücklage, sustainability reserve. Until 2004, it was called the Schwankungsreserve, the fluctuation reserve. The law ties the contribution rate to it. If the reserve falls below its floor, the contribution must rise. If it holds more than 1.5 months of spending, the contribution must fall. For years the floor was 0.2 months of spending. In 2022, the pension insurer told the Bundestag that this was not enough. Within a single year, it wrote, the money on hand at the end of October was already 0.2 to 0.3 months of spending below the level at year’s end. The pension package of 2025 raised the floor to 0.3 months. It expected the reserve to stand at 41.5 billion euros at the end of 2025, or 1.39 months of spending.