The statutory pension increase will be announced today, Thursday – it will be at least 5.8 percent. Negotiations on whether or not to adjust the cost of living will begin next week…
Today is D-Day for the country’s 2.2 million retirees. The official figure of the legally calculated pension increase will be announced. The percentage will be around 5.8 percent. This results from the inflation figures from August 2021 to July 2022. One thing is certain: it will not stop at 5.8 percent.
This starts a hot phase of negotiations. A heated debate has erupted about what the adjustment of the cost of living for retirees should look like.
Vice Chancellor Werner Kogler (Greens) said in the ORF summer talks that the government could add another two to 2.5 percent to the roughly 5.8 percent. However, Kogler added a footnote to this perspective, which the pensioners’ representatives of the SPÖ and ÖVP unanimously do not like at all.
Negotiations start next week
This (in the best case) 2.5 percent should in principle be an early pension increase. The percentage should then be below inflation in the coming year. “It is very optimistic to expect inflation to start falling next spring, but it is not certain. In recent months, virtually all economic forecasts have turned out to be wrong,” Ingrid Korosec, president of the Senior Citizens’ Association (ÖVP), waves away.
Peter Kostelka, the chairman of the Pensioners’ Association (SPÖ) demands a ten percent increase. While Korosec also wants full cost of living, it is more flexible in its execution.
Next week there will be a first warm-up round for the negotiations between the pensioners’ representatives and Minister of Social Affairs Johannes Rauch (Greens).
It will probably not come to a conclusion soon, because the pensioners’ representatives would like to know in advance how the electricity price brake or any gas price brake will be shaped. “The fact is that retirees have a higher gas consumption because they sit at home all day. We need help there,” says Korosec. However, there is good news: in September minimum pensioners will receive a one-off bonus of 300 euros to compensate for inflation. In addition, a maximum of 500 euros per pension amount is paid out to pensioners.
Source: Krone
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