The Ministry of Social Security and EH Bildu reached an agreement on the minimum widow’s pensions, for which they will increase from 1,775 euros to 3,800 euros per year in four years, making them equal to contributory pensions. The Abertzale formation claims in a statement that it has “achieved that minimum widow’s pensions will increase in 2024” by €40 per month for individual pensions and €126 more per month in widow’s pensions with a dependent spouse.
Under this measure, the minimum individual widow’s pension will increase by 17% and the dependent spouse’s allowance will increase by 30% over the next four years. The largest increase will occur in the first year, 2024.
EH Bildu explains that “widow’s pensions are currently, together with non-contribution pensions, the lowest pensions, with a clear gender component, condemning women with these pensions to a life of precariousness for decades.” The agreement will bring these pensions into line with minimum contributions, so “agreed increases will mean that no widow’s pension will ever fall below the poverty line”.
The abertzale formation claims it has succeeded in “improving the government’s pension reform proposal and correcting its shortcomings, including an increase in widow’s pensions, in addition to the 15% increase in statutory non-earnings pensions”, which was agreed with the government. The next two years (2023 and 2024).
Social Security Minister Jose Luis Escriva received the support of leftist forces this Wednesday at the Toledo Pact meeting to discuss the pension reform, which was approved by the Extraordinary Council of Ministers this Thursday.
Parliamentary spokesmen from PSOE, Unidas Podemos, ERC and EH Bildu congratulated the minister on the text reached after extensive negotiations in government between the two wings of the coalition, as well as unions and the pro-Catalan and Basque independence left.
Source: El Diario
