The Government finished the draft decision to increase the minimum pension and intends to approve it this week. The persons with a complete insurance period will get a pension of at least 2,000 lei as from October 1 this year. About 183,000 pensioners will benefit from such a rise. Pensions will grow by 360 lei on average, Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilița was quoted by IPN as saying in a press briefing.

The official said this is the biggest rise in the country’s history. The pensioners who do not have a complete insurance period will benefit from an average rise of about 400 lei. “These pension rises come simultaneously with the indexation of pensions. On October 1, all the pensions will be indexed by 3.86%. Besides, the social welfare for those whose benefits are correlated with the minimum pension will also rise. This way, 84,000 recipients of social welfare will benefit from an average rise of 450 lei,” stated Natalia Gavrilița.

Minister of Labor and Social Protection Marcel Spatari said the pension for 240,000 recipients will rise by at least 200 lei, while for 198,000 lei by at least 300 lei. For persons with an incomplete insurance period, the minimum pension will be proportional to the insurance period. If the person secured 80% of the insurance period, this will get a minimum pension of 1,600 lei. If the calculated pension is lower than 1,600 lei, the difference between the calculated pension and 1,600 lei will be covered with a solidarity supplement from the state budget.

According to the minister, the minimum disability pensions that are calculated based on the minimum pension will also rise. The minimum pension for average disability will be 1,000 lei, for accentuated disability – 1,400 lei, for severe disability – 1,500 lei. “The cost of this measure for 2021 was estimated at 512 million lei, while for next year at 2.1 billion lei. Financing will be provided from the state budget, as we explained,” stated Marcel Spatari.