By: Vida Kocjan
Retirees received higher pensions on Monday. Percentage increases varied, up to 3.5 percent. With this harmonisation, the government has corrected injustices from the time of the previous economic crisis, because no attention was paid to this in previous governments. Calculations show that pensions increased to 17.2 percent during the term of the current Janša government. This will be followed by regular adjustments in February with the January settlement. Pensions are expected to increase by 4 percent. In total, pensions will increase by more than a fifth in less than two years, which will undoubtedly be felt positively by retirees in practice.
At the same time, the government took care of the most vulnerable groups of the population with ten anti-corona measures during the epidemic with the new coronavirus. So far, they have received three times the extraordinary aid, up to 300 euros each in terms of income, the limit for which was set at a good 730 euros. The annual allowance was also higher. On Saturday, the government determined that all pensioners with a pension of up to 1,000 euros will also receive a solidarity energy supplement of 150 euros. It will be received by some others, a total of about 710 thousand. At the same time, electricity bills for all will be up to 40 percent lower in the next three months. The government has reduced excise tax and other duties, and the measure is worth around 200 million euros.
The opposition and its pro-democracy groups immediately began to grumble about where they would get the money from. The fact is, however, that the government will cover this measure with profits from energy companies and from the climate change fund. So, the government has only reallocated funds, and we taxpayers will not be burdened with that.
Some worry that the government is too generous to the population and the economy. However, the latest figures show that the government was taking the right measures at the time of the epidemic. Revenues in the state budget last year were 15.4 percent higher than in the previous year and 11.2 percent higher than in 2019, at a time when there was no crisis.
As much as the Janša government has done for Slovenian pensioners, no government has done so far.
Vida Kocjan is a journalist for Demokracija magazine.