The government recently agreed to adopt the statutory adjustment factor for the annual pension adjustment. Peter Kostelka, president of the SPÖ-affiliated pensioners’ association, expressed his disagreement in a press release. The increase was not enough “to put a stop to poverty in old age,” he said.
The government is “about to miss its last chance,” Kostelka said on Tuesday. In the government agreement, it had committed to reducing poverty in old age. “In order to achieve this goal, the compensation allowance would finally have to be raised above the poverty line,” Kostelka said.
“Other open construction sites”
The association president also saw other “open issues”. By this he meant, for example, the “complete abolition of the completely pointless pro rata rationing of the first pension adjustment after retirement”. This regulation is currently suspended and is set to remain so until 2026. This means that everyone who retires will receive the full pension increase next year.
Furthermore, Kostelka called for a “permanent protection clause against pension cuts” due to inflation, a “general overhaul of company pensions” and the “abolition of pension security contributions”. It is important to him “not to shake up the statutory retirement age, but to finally create an age-appropriate working environment”.
The basis for the calculation of the benchmark pension increase for 2025 by the Ministry of Social Affairs is the average increase in the consumer price index. For this purpose, the arithmetic mean of the twelve annual inflation rates from August 2023 to July 2024 published by Statistics Austria is used.
The government had already announced in July that pensions would be increased by the statutory adjustment factor in 2025. This applies up to the maximum ASVG contribution base of 6,060 euros per month. Pensions above this amount only receive the adjustment factor up to this amount. The factor is also used to valorize family and social benefits and to increase politicians’ salaries.