CHP's Taşcıer provides figures for the lowest pension and holiday bonus

CHP Deputy Chair Gamze Taşcıer stated that they want the lowest pension to be raised to the minimum wage level of 17,002 Turkish Liras.

In a written statement, Taşcıer said, "According to Social Security Institution data, we have approximately 16 million citizens receiving retirement, widow, or orphan pensions. Unfortunately, 90% of them receive a pension even lower than today's minimum wage. Our retirees are receiving such low payments that they are not just struggling with poverty, they are directly battling hunger."

"A RETIREE'S SALARY IS NOT ENOUGH TO BUY A GRAVE PLOT"

Stating that "Retirees in Turkey are not living, they are trying to survive," Taşcıer said the following:

"According to official data, 6.1 million of our retirees are either working or looking for work, a rate that has increased 2.5 times since 2008. In the last three years alone, at least 2,354 workers who had retired but were forced to work because they could not make ends meet with their low pensions lost their lives in workplace homicides. Our people, who have worked for years, shed sweat, and served their country, have been left to face terrible misery and told to fend for themselves. For a retiree, buying a house, a car, or going on vacation is a luxury; even buying a grave plot has become one. Today, a retiree's salary is not enough to buy the grave plot next to their spouse if they pass away."

"IT WOULD HAVE BEEN 23 THOUSAND 632 LIRAS"

Providing the information that, "In 2002, when the net minimum wage was 184 liras, the lowest worker pension was 257 liras. In other words, the lowest worker pension was 1.39 times the minimum wage," Taşcıer said, "If the ratio of the lowest pension to the minimum wage had been maintained over the past 21 years, the lowest pension as of the new year would have been 23,632 liras. This proportionality worked against the retiree, and today it has become a pension far below the minimum wage."

Taşcıer continued:

"It is not just this; just as the government is trying to consolidate all wage earners at the minimum wage level with a conscious policy, they also want to bring our retirees together at the lowest pension level. The system has become so broken that there has been an unfair convergence, or even a meeting at the same wage, between those who paid low premiums and those who paid high premiums. We demand a fair increase for everyone, without further disrupting the balance between those who paid low and high premiums for our retirees, and without resorting to methods that bring everyone together at the lowest threshold. Most fundamentally, we want a pension determined that will allow for a life worthy of human dignity. Because the increase envisioned by the government today will mean nothing for the retiree. The figures being discussed are figures that do not even reach today's hunger level and continue the misery. It is not possible for a retiree to make it to the end of 2024 with these discussed pensions."

LOWEST PENSION

Demanding that "As CHP, we want the lowest pension for our retirees to be raised to the minimum wage level, that is, 17,002 liras," Taşcıer stated the following:

"However, while saying this, we also reiterate our demand that the minimum wage determined for 2024 is absolutely insufficient and must be updated within three months at the latest. While the lowest pension is being raised to the minimum wage level, we propose that this be implemented with a regulation that does not lead to the closing of gaps, that pension accrual rates be raised again, that the adaptation law for the period after 2000 be enacted as soon as possible, and that holiday bonuses be increased to 15,000 liras. If these are realized, our retirees can breathe a little easier. The opposite would mean abandoning millions of our retirees to hunger, misery, and death."

News Source: 12punto