SEP: Pension increase of 0,95 percent is a mockery of pensioners, urgently change the method of adjustment

The Party of European Progress (SEP) assessed that the latest adjustment of May pensions by 0,95 percent is an indicator of the poor financial situation of pensioners in Montenegro and called on pensioner associations to request urgent negotiations with the Government.

They expressed their strongest protest regarding, as they said, the catastrophic financial status of Montenegrin pensioners, which, in their opinion, has been further exposed by the latest, miserable adjustment of May pensions of only 0,95 percent.

The party announced that, due to such an adjustment, the oldest citizens would receive an increase of only four to five euros, which they assessed as a mockery of their dignity and living needs.

"We are witnesses that the so-called 'artificial' raising of standards through the 'Europe Now 2' program has been completely devalued by the real increase in the cost of living. What was supposedly given to pensioners on paper has been taken away from them many times over through daily increases in the prices of food, medicines and basic necessities. Instead of the promised economic boom, we have got a system in which pensioners cannot even buy two loaves of bread with the latest increase," the statement said.

They warned of, as they said, the long-term and dangerous consequences that the "Europe Now 2" program had on the stability of public finances through the planned and systematic destruction of the Pension and Disability Insurance Fund (PIO).

"The Pension and Disability Insurance Fund, instead of being a guarantor of security for earned pensions, has been turned into a run-of-the-mill water heater and a political instrument of the Government, which directly threatens the sustainability of payments in the future. By abolishing and drastically reducing contributions, the principle of intergenerational solidarity on which the stability of every serious society rests has been devalued," the SEP assessed.

They pointed out that pensions are not social assistance or a political gift from the government, but an earned and legally guaranteed right.

"The Party of European Progress therefore makes a strong appeal and encouragement to all pensioner associations in Montenegro to reject the crumbs from the Government's table and to insist without delay on initiating urgent negotiations with the Government of Montenegro. The time for passive observation and empty promises is over. The associations must unanimously and decisively demand an urgent revision of the calculation methodology and an extraordinary adjustment that will realistically monitor the cost of living and protect the endangered standard of living. Montenegro must not allow its oldest citizens, who built this country, to be economically marginalized and abandoned to poverty. The Party of European Progress will, through its political engagement and concrete economic solutions, continue to fight for radical reforms, the restoration of the stability of the Pension and Disability Insurance Fund, and the restoration of dignity to our pensioners," the statement concludes.