More cuts considered for auxiliary pensions
The government is negotiating a fresh reduction to some auxiliary pensions with the country’s creditors in a bid to protect pensioners whose total income comes to less than 1,000 euros per month (as a sum of main and auxiliary pensions).
According to the main scenario being examined by the Labor and Social Security Ministry, all main pensions will be recalculated to determine the so-called “personal difference” (the difference between the old and new calculation methods that pensioners who retired before May 2016 still collect).
In cases where the sum of pensions comes to more than 1,000 euros (alternatively over 1,200 euros), there will be an extra cut amounting to 50 percent of the personal difference. Three-quarters of this will come from the main pension and a quarter from the auxiliary pension.
For sums below the threshold to be set (probably 1,000 euros), the cut will come to 20 percent of the personal difference, spread evenly across the main and auxiliary pensions.
That way, social security officials estimate, lower-income pensioners will be protected regardless of the amount of the personal difference they enjoy.