But politicians still eat the numbers that the average pension has increased faster, and compared to what it was 20 years ago, pensioners now receive 6 times larger pensions.
The pension increased by only 1 percent
On Wednesday, the conference “National Strategy for Overcoming the Consequences of Aging” is being held in the Seimas.
It discusses legal issues, raising pensions, health care and other relevant social issues.
The event is attended by representatives of the country’s largest non-governmental organizations of elderly people and regional associations.
One of them is Vilija Tūrienė, the chairperson of the Vilnius “Bočių” society. Speaking at the conference, she admitted to carefully reading media reports about pensions and netizens’ comments about them.
Among other things, the chairwoman pointed out that among the comments there are also those that state that people’s pensions are increasing less than the government representatives publicly state.
“I don’t know about you, I myself recently received a notice from the board of the Sodra Foundation about the pension renewal. This, you know, is such an empirical experience of mine that my pension was written from January 1. increased by 5 euros.
I’m thinking, that’s how many percentages are coming out here now. 1 percent comes out. If we live well here, what will the future be like? Maybe those percentages will count towards the minus, the other way around? We have such a situation that we have to discuss”, said V. Tūrienė to those gathered at the conference.
Ministry data does not show 5 euros
The Deputy Minister of Social Security and Labor, Martynas Šiurkus, did not directly respond to the chairperson’s concern about the slightly increased pension. However, he claimed that due to the legislation prepared by the ministry he represented, pensions increased more than they would have increased without them.
“The Ministry of Social Security and Labor prepared the Law on the Amendment of Social Insurance Pension Insurance Pensions, which was aimed at reducing the poverty of the elderly more quickly and bringing the minimum pensions closer to the minimum consumption needs, by abandoning the application of the ratio of a person’s acquired necessary length of service in calculating the general part of the pension, when the person has not acquired the necessary length of service namely to designate a pension and at the same time increase the dependence of the individual part of the pension on paid social insurance contributions, thus applying a faster indexation coefficient of the individual part.
This means that those people who work longer earn more, so that part of their pensions increases faster,” the vice-minister read his report.
He calculated that in 2022 pensions in Lithuania instead of 8.47 percent. increased by an average of 11 percent. and 2023 by about 14 percent, and this year it will increase by about 10.8 percent. (the vice-minister did not mention that the price of food in Lithuania has risen by almost 50% in the last three years).
M. Šiurkus reminded that this ruling majority introduced benefits for a single person, which are awarded automatically. From 2024 such payment amounts to 38.23 euros.
The Vice Minister also reminded that in 2022 the Law on Supplementary Social Insurance Pension Indexation came into force.
It is said that in 2022 pensions increased by an average of about 70 euros and the average pension reached 482 euros, and only those with the required length of service – 510 euros.
“According to the calculations of the Ministry of Social Security and Labor, in 2022 the income of those receiving an average pension increased by more than 700 euros”, M. Šiurkus testified.
According to him, the pensions of some residents will increase from 7 percent. up to 50 percent and on disability reform. In addition, the amount of minimum consumption needs (MVPD) increased from 354 to 446 euros. Thus, pension premiums for those receiving the lowest pensions also increased.
According to the Vice Minister, since the beginning of this year, state pensions have been indexed by 6%. And the pensions of the affected persons, according to the prepared project, should increase by about 87 percent.
Need to be glad that it used to be worse?
Mindaugas Lingė, chairman of the Budget and Finance Committee of the Seimas, also participated in the conference.
He reminded that the 20th anniversary of Lithuania’s accession to the European Union was celebrated at the beginning of May.
“There is definitely something to celebrate and be proud of, that our progress was really fast and efficient,” the politician assured.
He suggested remembering how badly Lithuanian pensioners lived before:
“When we joined the European Union, the average old-age pension was 106 euros 20 years ago. This year is average, of course there are all kinds of situations, there are the mentioned small ones, but there are also unmentioned large ones, and it turns out that we have an average pension of 644 euros for those with the necessary length of service.”
According to M. Lingė, the country’s economic indicators have also improved in a similar way – about 5-6 times. For example, the average salary after tax has increased by about 5 times. Lithuania’s exports and gross domestic product also increased significantly. It is said that as economic indicators improve, pensions also increase.
On the other hand, the chairman of the committee warned that Lithuanians are getting older – both life expectancy and the number of elderly residents are increasing. At that time, the number of people working and paying social insurance contributions, which finance pensions, will be so small. Thus, these trends cannot be overlooked when discussing pensions.
Tags: pension increased euros authorities counter worse years
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