Socialists: 2017 pension rise ‘humiliating, unfair’

Budapest, June 2 (MTI) – Socialist Party leader József Tóbiás on Thursday called the government’s planned 0.9 percent pension rise for next year “humiliating” and “unfair”.

Tóbiás said next year’s pension plan, which would increase pensions by an average of 1,000 forints (EUR 3.19), indicated that the government has “given up” on pensioners.

Meanwhile, the government plans to raise the salaries of state-owned company executives and the central bank governor by 150 percent, he said.

Tóbiás called for a 2.4 percent pension raise for 2017 to match the projected inflation rate.

But he said the long-term goal should be to construct a new model for calculating pension hikes. This should take into account changes in the price level of a basket of goods regularly purchased by pensioners. He said the 200 billion forints worth of cuts to drug subsidies in recent years had significantly increased drug prices.

He said providing pensioners with high quality free health and social services was equally as important as paying decent pensions.

Photo: MTI

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters