For the first time in many years, the number of pensioners is minimum in this country.
Number of pensioners with a minimum pension was 148,800 at the end of third quarter 2016. This is 3,500 more than a year ago, according to Nav.
– The number of minimum pensioners went down almost every year, but now we see an increase for the first time since 2008, says section manager Ole Christian Lien of Nav in a statement.
Nav believes that the reason is that minimum rates were set up on 1 September.
The increase has come among those who previously had a retirement just over the minimum pension, but that has now been raised to the new rates.
The minimum pension increased by 4,500 Kroner per year for married and cohabiting pensioners and 4,000 kroner for single pensioners.
– We expect that the number of minimum pensions will continue to increase beyond 2016, before the number goes down again in 2017, said Lien.
The number of pensioners however increased definitely. There were 889,000 recipients of retirement at the end of third quarter 2016.
This is an increase of 27,000 over the past year. 91 000 people between 62 and 66 years are now receiving retirement. It represents 32 percent of the population in this age group, says Nav.
Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today