Social Security Retirees Protest Their Living Conditions in Various Iranian Cities
Social security retirees protested their living conditions on Sunday, Bahman 26, in various cities across Iran, and plan to hold a nationwide protest on Bahman 29.
Tasnim News Agency reported on these protests, highlighting the issue of the government’s “340 trillion toman debt to social security” and the organization’s inability to increase retirees’ pensions. Hassan Sadeghi, head of the “Federation of Pioneers of the Workers’ Community,” told ILNA news agency that “retirees will attend a large gathering of 10,000 people on Bahman 29 at the invitation of the Federation of Pioneers of the Workers’ Community.”
Reports published on social media indicate that retirees protested the failure to achieve appropriate indexation of pensions, stating that the poverty line in Iran has reached “9 million tomans.”
Article 96 of the Social Security Law states that pensions must increase in line with living expenses, but the Social Security Organization says the government owes it 340 trillion tomans and lacks the financial capacity to increase retirees’ pensions further.
Protesting retirees contend that their salaries lag behind inflation by at least 50 percent.
Retirees with minimum salary and 30 years of service receive 2.8 million tomans, and those with average salary and 35 years of service receive 7 million tomans; however, these figures still fall far short of the 9 million toman poverty line in the country.
According to a Khordad report by the Parliamentary Research Center, per capita income declined by 34 percent from 1390 to 1398: “In fact, despite the nominal increase in household income, each Iranian’s purchasing power has decreased by about one-third compared to 1390.”
Parliament’s research arm has predicted that if 8 percent economic growth is achieved from 1399 onwards, it will take at least six years for the country to return to the per capita income level of 1390.
The government has also faced budget deficits in recent years, and Mohammad Baqer Nobakht, head of Iran’s Planning and Budget Organization, recently announced that 32 trillion tomans was allocated in this year’s budget for 3.6 million social security retirees, but due to “a legal issue,” only 30 percent of this amount was paid.
He did not clarify what this legal problem was or what would happen to the government’s 340 trillion toman debt to the organization, but figures from the country’s general treasury show that the government has faced a significant budget deficit for the second consecutive year.
Nevertheless, Mr. Sadeghi says at the Bahman 29 gathering they will explicitly ask parliamentary representatives to allocate 90 trillion tomans for the social security organization in the 1400 budget.
He also said, “Today parliamentary representatives tell retirees that we will allocate 90 trillion tomans for the organization in the budget, but behind the scenes they oppose it.”
According to an assessment by the International Monetary Fund, the average inflation rate over the past two years in Iran has been around 36 percent, and in the current and coming years it will remain above 30 percent.
Source: Radio Farda
