The delegate of the Government of Spain in Andalusia, Pedro Fernández, has today taken stock of how contributory pensions (retirement, permanent disability, widowhood, orphanhood and favor of families) “have been progressively increased since 2019 thanks to the fulfillment of the commitment of a Government that shields the Welfare State, and that this year has brought forward a new revaluation of 8.5%, which means only for retirement pensions €1,353.94 more per year, that is, an extra pay”.
Fernández recalled that since 2019 this “Government of the people has been establishing the necessary measures to guarantee a dignified income to the social majority, to the most vulnerable groups, to the 1.6 million retirees and retirees of Andalusia that since the beginning of a progressive government have been recovering purchasing power with increases well above the 0.25% established in 2013 to accumulate an increase of 3,292 € in recent years”.
Thus, he explained that “if in 2018 the average retirement pension in Andalusia stood at €999.23 per month, the following year it increased to €1,032.83, in 2020 it reached €1,056.96, a new increase in 2021 established it at €1,079.75 and in 2022 it reached €1,137.73”.
“The revaluation of 8.5% determined for this year, which places the average retirement pension €1,234.44 per month, is not something timely, it is the result of the commitment of a Government that considered it unsustainable to maintain the reform of 2013, which would have caused a gradual accumulated increase of €175 from 2018 to 2023, some 12 euros more per month compared to the €235.21 per month that retirees have earned with the continuous revaluation,” said Fernández, who has ruled that “the data do not allow discussion.”
In line with the “reinforcement of the social shield in which the Government has been working since 2019”, as the delegate has called it, he recalled that “to all this should be added the increase of 15% for Non-Contributory Pensions, which will also be executed this year and which will mean about 76 euros more per month, that if we multiply it by 14 payments we are talking about some 1,064 euros more per year from which more than 480,000 Andalusians will benefit, one of the groups more are affected by the rise in prices”.
To conclude, Pedro Fernández has focused on the fact that “the progressive revaluations have been launched with the maximum social and political legitimacy following the recommendations of the Toledo Pact of the Congress of Deputies and the great agreement with the social partners of 2021, which was signed in the Palacio de la Moncloa”.
“In short, in Andalusia 2.33 million pensioners and recipients of other benefits, adding contributory, non-contributory pensions, passive classes, IMV and benefits for dependent children with disabilities, will be guaranteed their purchasing power in a context of high inflation unknown for 30 years,” he added.