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A 26 percent pension increase starting from November this year and freezing the transfer of social security contributions to private administrators in 2023, so that 12 billion RON remain in the social security budget as a pension raising pool, are two of the demands of the national representative federations of pensioners' associations which organized on Tuesday protests in front of the government offices and prefect's offices throughout the country.
According to president of the "Unirea" National Federation of Romanian Pensioners, Dumitru Cojanu, the grievances are related to the serious problems faced by millions of Romanian retirees: the increase in energy and food prices, the decrease of the real pension by 19 percent, "all of which has a devastating effect on the pensioners' lives", Agerpres informs.
According to the protesters, the pensioners' standard of living has seen a severe deterioration in the last three years due to the 26 percent cut in pension benefits, as in 2020 the pension point was reduced from the 1,775 RON provided for by the law to 1,442 RON.
Also, pensions didn't rise in 2021, while prices swell by over 18 percent, "and the pension increase by mere 10 percent in 2022 is not enough to cover the over 30-40 percent surge in food prices and bills, while the spiralling inflation has reached 17 percent".
The representatives of Romanian pensioners also took to the streets in March this year, when they requested the reduction of employees' contributions to the 2nd Pillar pension fund "so that there is also room for retiree benefits during this period".
