The government of Robert Golob has sent a legislative proposal to the National Assembly on urgent measures to increase pensioners’ incomes and limit the rise in nursing home fees in the area of social security. As Slovenian Democratic Party MP Zvone Černač said when presenting his position, the bill will result in the recipients of farmers’ pensions, who have worked hard on their farms all their lives, only receiving a 13-euro solidarity bonus, while those with the highest pensions in Slovenia, such as Kučan, will receive 150 additional euros. “This does not seem right to us,” the SDS party wrote.
Under the bill proposed by the government of Robert Golob, all pensions for November and December will be increased early by 4.5 percent. The early increase is due to the severe rising in prices we are currently facing in Slovenia. But as former minister and MP of the Slovenian Democratic Party (Slovenska Demokratska stranka – SDS), Zvone Černač pointed out, this is not about any harmonisation of the pensions, but a solidarity supplement, “where those with the lowest pensions should
get the most, and not the other way around, which is actually what Golob’s law entails,” the SDS MP said.
In the presentation of his opinion on the legislative proposal, MP Černač then went on to say that Prime Minister Golob was very misleading in his response to Černač’s question where he had said that pensioners would receive an adjustment of their pensions in the same way as the public sector employees. As Černač explained, the increase in pay for the public sector applies from the 1st of October onwards, plus a back-payment allowance for this year. In his response, Golob promised that pensioners would receive the same benefits. “And has this turned out to be true? The Prime Minister has, just like so many times before, once again misled all of us,” Černač made it clear.
SDS party: We demand that the allowance be paid to pensioners, too! Due to the obvious unfairness of Golob’s bill, the SDS party has prepared an amendment to the law. “The SDS parliamentary group is therefore proposing an amendment to implement the increase of pensions as of the 1st of October onwards, as was adopted for the public sector, and we also propose to pay all pensioners a supplement when their pensions are paid in December, similar to what the public sector employees will receive next week, depending on the timing of the payment, we are talking about a Christmas bonus of between 50 euros and 300 euros. The highest amount should go to those with pensions that are lower than 570 euros. The scale used is the same as that used for the annual allowance.”
Things were very different during the term of the government of Janez Janša Černač then went on to remind everyone of a different time. During the term of the Janez Janša government, pensioners received a solidarity allowance between 300 euros and 130 euros every year. This was a time when inflation was much lower, and the population was not facing a severe rising in the prices of energy and food.
The bill does not solve the problem of rising prices Černač then rightly pointed out that not all segments of the population are affected equally by the rising prices, as the increase in the prices of basic necessities and energy represents a relatively higher cost for those pensioners with lower pensions than for those with higher pensions. “This increase in pensions is aimed at alleviating the cost of living, where those with the lowest pensions should get more money. That is why we are proposing a Christmas bonus that would at least partially mitigate these disparities,” Černač suggested.
The way in which benefits have been capped is also problematic In the second part of the bill, the government of Robert Golob limits the increase of care fees in nursing homes, but this part of the law is also problematic, says Černač. The government’s intention to limit the rise in care fees to 4.5 percent will once again hit those with lower incomes the hardest. The increase in the provision of care will be higher for the poorest pensioners than the increase in pensions that they will receive as a result of the 4.5 percent rise.
Gal Kovač
