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• German doctors criticise "lifestyle pensions" that reward smoking and obesity  

Doctors in Germany have voiced concerns about the introduction of so called lifestyle pensions, which "reward" unhealthy behaviour by offering higher annuities to groups of people, such as smokers and obese people, who may be expected to die earlier than average.

Rudolf Henke, the chairman of the Marburger Bund, the German hospital doctors’ society, said it was "ludicrous and cynical" to reward customers for risking their own health.

Lifestyle pensions, also called non-standard annuities, are relatively common in other European countries such as the United Kingdom and have been increasingly promoted since the 1990s.

Several international insurance companies are now trying to push their products in Germany, offering them to their existing customers and approaching patients’ groups, such as those for people with diabetes, and smoking clubs.

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