The government has agreed on the pension adjustment for the coming year. As of January 1, 2022, gross pensions of up to 1,000 euros will be increased by three percent.
The statutory adjustment value (inflation) is 1.8 percent. Pensions of 1,000-1,300 euros will be subject to a phase-in rule and all pensions of 1,300 euros or more will be subject to the inflation adjustment of 1.8 percent.
The corresponding resolution will be adopted in the Council of Ministers next week and then forwarded to Parliament for further consideration. This pension increase will provide a total of EUR 1.1 billion from the budget.
Pensioners with a pension of 1,000 euros will receive 30 euros more per month or 420 euros more per year. Pensions of 2,000 euros will increase by 36 euros a month or 504 euros a year. The median pension across all pension types is currently around 1,045 euros.
Low and medium pensions more strongly taken into account in increase
The pandemic has led to sharp price increases in various areas of life, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP) said in a statement to APA. For him as chancellor, it is therefore important that especially pensioners with low and medium pensions are taken more into account in the upcoming pension increase and that the increase is significantly higher than the inflation value. “People who have worked all their lives and built up our welfare state should also benefit from the government’s relief measures in old age,” Kurz said.
“We want to ensure a good life in old age, especially for people with low pensions,” Vice Chancellor Werner Kogler (Greens) also affirmed. Women in particular are often at risk of poverty in old age, he said, and this is where countermeasures need to be taken. “We are already increasing the lowest and low pensions by up to three percent for the second time in a row. As a result, more than one million people, i.e. just under half of all pensioners, will have more to live on in 2022.” At the same time, all pensioners will receive full compensation for the entire loss of purchasing power over the past year, as provided for in the law, he added.
Pensionist federation demands more per cent
Upper Austrian Governor Thomas Stelzer (ÖVP), who is currently campaigning for election, expressed satisfaction with the agreed pension increase. “We all feel that times are not getting easier. (…) It was important to me that low and medium pensions benefit particularly from an increase and that people thereby receive security for the coming year.”
source: vienna.at/picture:pixabay.com
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