“On January 1, that’s my personal wish. Now the Ministry of Social Security and Labour and the Ministry of Finance will have to make calculations and the decision will be clear at the end of September,” he told reporters after the Cabinet’s meeting on Wednesday.
He said it was still too premature to specify the scale of the increase, but added that the estimates of the Ministry of Social Security and Labor that pensions might be raised by 6 percent on average in the middle of 2016 were “real”.
“We want pensions to be raised on January 1 instead of July 1 so that people could finally regain trust in politicians… It has nothing to do with the upcoming elections,” Butkevičius said.
Social Security and Labor Minister Algimanta Pabedinskienė told the reporters on Tuesday that the ministry would propose increasing pensions by 6 percent on average, or by 16 euros per pensioner, in the middle of next year. The increase would require 75 million euros from the budget of Sodra, the state social insurance fund, and another 10 million euros from the central government budget.
The government on July 1 raised the amount of the basic state social insurance pension by 3 euros to 108 euros. The insured income level was also increased by 3 euros, to 434 euros.
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