Seniors’ pensions will be more than double by 2024 after 4 years of increases

Seniors’ pensions will increase annually and reach 6,000 pesos (US $292) every two months in 2024, President López Obrador announced Sunday.

Speaking at an event in Oaxaca to mark the 215th anniversary of the birth of former president Benito Juárez, López Obrador said that pensions – currently 2,700 pesos every two months – will increase 15% in July and 20% annually starting January 2022. Pensions will also be adjusted on an annual basis according to inflation.

In addition, the president said the pension eligibility age will fall to 65 in July from 68. Under current rules, only indigenous Mexicans qualify for a seniors’ pension at the age of 65.

López Obrador said the government’s outlay on seniors’ pensions will increase to 240 billion pesos (US $11.7 billion) in 2022 from 135 billion pesos this year.

It will reach 300 billion pesos in 2023 and 370 billion pesos in 2024, the president said, adding that 10.3 million seniors will benefit from the pension increases.

“These resources will come out of the public budget without increasing debt or taxes and without gasolinazos [sharp gas price increases],” López Obrador said.

He said the pension increases will basically be funded by savings generated by the government’s “republican austerity,” explaining that his administration will continue to save money by combatting corruption and living by the creed that “there can’t be a rich government with poor people.”

López Obrador also noted that the minimum salary has increased 44% in real terms since he took office in late 2018. It is currently 141.7 pesos (about US $7) per day in most of the country and 213.4 pesos in the northern border free zone.

Mexico is experiencing a “political and social spring in which we’re establishing freedoms, sweeping away the filth of corruption and recovering the priority of the Mexican state – attending to the disadvantaged first – that should have never been lost,” the president said.

López Obrador has made social and welfare programs a cornerstone of his administration but has been criticized for not providing any substantial additional economic assistance to help people through the sharp coronavirus-induced economic downturn.

Source: Milenio (sp)