In today’s Social Affairs Committee of the National Council, it is unlikely that there will be a decision on the proportioning of the first pension adjustment. As the Ministry of Social Affairs informed APA when asked, the two coalition parties have not yet been able to agree on any regulation. However, it is decided that minimum pensioners will receive a higher one-off payment. An error in the original legal text is corrected with a repair.
The factoring means that in the first year following retirement you only get the full increase if you start retirement in January. The plus decreases from month to month. If you leave in November or December, you get nothing for the first year.
After yesterday’s Council of Ministers, Social Affairs Minister Johannes Rauch (Greens) and ÖVP club chairman August Wögigner were confident of finding a solution. For the Social Committee on Thursday, however, that was no longer the case. The Ministry of Social Affairs told the APA that the talks will continue and that efforts will continue to be made to find a quick solution. This should be in place by the time the pension is adjusted in autumn at the latest. But Rauch is committed to finding a solution sooner, according to his department. For this year’s pension adjustment, the proportioning rule was toned down, with each new pensioner receiving at least half the pension increase.
On the other hand, a resolution that will bring more money to minimum pensioners is definitely on the agenda of the Social Affairs Committee. In addition to the increase of 5.8 percent at the beginning of the year in March, the retirees also received the one-off payment decided with the adjustment. However, the minimum pensioners were disadvantaged. Up to a gross pension of EUR 2,000, the one-off payment is 30 percent of a gross monthly payment, capped at a maximum of EUR 500. Up to 2,500 euros gross, a slip-out regulation then applies. However, these 30 percent were not calculated for the minimum pensioners on the basis of the compensatory allowance of 1,110 euros, but on the basis of the lower portion of their own pension.
The government admitted a mistake three weeks ago, announced a correction and promised an additional payment for the approximately 200,000 people affected. This correction will now be decided today in the social committee, which means that the difference can be paid out retrospectively for the recipients of compensatory allowances.
