Negative social security settlement for the third time in a row

Older married couplesOlder married couples on the trip. Photo Norway Today Media

Seniors, especially those who are single, will be the losers in this year’s social security settlement, according to the newspaper Dagbladet.

Based on the current regulation and for the third consecutive year, pensioners will have a decline in revenue, according to Dagbladet.

Retirement pensions according to the regulation, are adjusted in line with wage growth, and then reduced with 0.75 percent. The formula has had a negative effect in recent years, as the wage growth has been very low.

– The current regulatory regime with “minus 0.75 percent” now provides very unfortunate consequences and helps to undermine confidence in the pension reform, says Erik Orskaug, Chief Economist at Unio.

According to calculations the newspaper has made, pensioners will have a significant decline in their retirement pension by 1.2 percent this year, which follows a decline of 1.9 percent in 2016 and 0.5 percent in 2015.

Figures from the Pensioners’ Association shows that it is single persons who will have the greatest decline in purchasing power.

The social security settlement notice will arrives this year on May 15th and 16th and affects about 1 million Norwegians, including more than 800,000 pensioners.

– Last year, the social security discussions between pensioner organizations and the government were just a game for the gallery.

The government had already decided the outcome and would not listen to our demands. We will not accept it this year, says the Leader of the Pensioners’ Association, Jan Davidsen.

 

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today