Nearly 33,000 Hungarians living abroad get pension from home

Budapest, January 2 (MTI) – Nearly 33,000 Hungarians living abroad, mostly in Germany, get pension or other pension-type benefits sent from Hungary, daily Magyar Idők said on Monday citing data from the Central Statistical Office (KSH).

Around 85 percent of the total number or nearly 30,000 people get their age pension sent abroad, some 2,500 get widow’s pension and parent’s pension benefits, and some 500 get orphan’s benefit. A third of those getting their pension sent abroad were born between 1945 and 1949 and only 122 get their benefits from early retirement.

The majority of people getting their pension sent abroad have only 15 years of registered employment history so their average monthly pension was below 45,000 forints in January, which is slightly more than a third of the average Hungarian pension.

After Germany, most Hungarians get their pension sent over to Austria, followed by Canada, the US, Sweden, Slovakia and Australia, the paper said.

Source: MTI/Magyar Idők/KSH