Leftist DK party sees room for steeper pension increase

Budapest (MTI) – Hungarian pensioners could get a steeper pension increase if the government were to cancel an agreement that finances Ukrainian and Russian pensioners and would give the savings to Hungarian pensioners, the deputy leader of the opposition DK party said on Saturday.

DK calls on the government to cancel an agreement signed during the Kádár regime with Ukraine and the Russian Federation, László Varju told a press conference. In line with the 1963 law, citizens of the affected countries who were staying in the other country’s territory were entitled to the same labour regulations, social services and social insurance as the country’s own citizens.

Varju said the cancellation would result in over 10 billion forints (EUR 32.3m) savings annually and this could be used to pay considerable support to pensioners.

Commenting on the 10,000 forints worth of Erzsebet vouchers given as a one-off payment to pensioners, he said the government could afford several times more if more time and energy were spent on the issue.

Source: MTI