Pensions to rise from next year
By Thomas Hochwarter
Government and union agree on 1.5 per cent increase.
Finance Minister satisfied with deal.
Vienna. Pensions are to rise next year after pension union leaders and the government agreed on a deal that will see a 1.5 per cent hike in pay-outs to pensioners next year, it was announced. SPÖ Chancellor and ÖVP Finance Minister Josef Pröll said pensions lower than 2,466 Euros a month will be raised by 1.5 per cent from 2010. Pension Union bosses Andreas Khol and Karl Blecha had campaigned in favour of a 1.9 or two per cent rise for weeks, claiming elderly people suffered most in the current economic crisis. And earlier this month, state agency Statistik Austria announced pensioner households had to spend 0.6 per cent more in October than in the same month of 2008 while inflation rose just by 0.3 per cent year on year.
Chancellor Faymann and Finance Minister Pröll also said today they had agreed on an overall 35-million-Euro one-off payment for pensioners receiving less than 1,300 Euros a month. But they added details of the scheme still needed to be negotiated.
Pröll said he was satisfied with the achieved compromise, adding that - with 544 million Euros - costs would stay under 608 million Euros the government was prepared to spend. He explained an increase ta- king into account the so-called Pensioners Prices Index would have cost the government 644 million Euros. This index focuses on prices of products and services pensioners espe- cially buy or make use of.
Social Democratic Pensioners’ Union head Karl Blecha called the agreement a "very satisfying result”, adding he would continue his fight for a higher increase taking into consideration the Pensioners Prices Index.
Pensioners’ Union bosses had faced harsh opposition from various critics over their calls for a rise of 1.9 to two per cent. Industrial Association (IV) President Veit Sorger recently labelled the appeals "anti-social” and accused the elderly of "wanting to live off the younger generation”.
Printausgabe vom 24.11.2009
Kommentar senden:
* Kommentare werden nicht automatisch veröffentlicht. Bitte beachten Sie unsere Regeln.
Die Redaktion behält sich vor Kommentare abzulehnen. Wenn Sie eine Veröffentlichung Ihrer Stellungnahme als Leserbrief in der Druckausgabe wünschen, dann bitten wir Sie auch um die Angabe einer nachprüfbaren Postanschrift im Feld Postadresse. Diese Adresse wird online nicht veröffentlicht.