Due to the austerity measures

Pensioners to lose up to 300 euros this year

Pensioners are losing a lot of money this year. However, when asked by “Krone,” the Minister of Social Affairs cannot rule out the possibility of further cuts.(Bild: Krone KREATIV/stock.adobe.com)

Budget negotiations are in the “crucial phase”; the government is seeking two billion euros in potential savings—and local pensioners fear they will once again “get the short end of the stick.” The anxious question is: Will retirement benefits once again fail to be fully adjusted for inflation at the turn of the year? The result would be a further loss of purchasing power.

Yet pensioners are already contributing significantly to the consolidation of the public budget this year, because: In January, only pensions up to 2,500 euros gross received the full 2.7 percent adjustment for inflation. Everyone above that threshold received a flat rate of 67.50 euros. On average, this amounted to a total increase of just 2.25 percent.

“Cold progression” also costs pensioners dearly
A second factor comes into play: At the turn of the year, the government did not raise the tax brackets (keyword: “abolition of cold progression”) by the full inflation rate of 2.6 percent in this case, but only by 1.73 percent—that is, two-thirds of that amount.

Vienna-based entrepreneur Bernhard Angeler, who runs the online portal rechner.at, calculated for the “Krone” what this actually means depending on the pension amount.