Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has revealed that for the first time in its history, Hungary will pay out pension supplements.
The prime minister said "this has never happened before, and is a step forward” as he announced the measure will come into effect in November.
During a session of the Seniors Council in Hungary’s Parliament, the prime minister said that Hungarians want to build a country in which every generation occupies a special place; "we are thinking in terms of Hungary’s generations,” he said.
The prime minister also spoke about a proposal for all pensioners to receive a 10,000 HUF “Erzsébet Voucher” this Christmas, as they did last year.
PM Orbán said that the basis for calculating the pension supplement is the planned economic growth rate of 4.1 percent. The background to this is that if the economy performs well – with growth above 3.5 percent – a surplus is generated for the whole country, part of which must also benefit pensioners.
The prime minister said “there is a good chance that a pension supplement will also be paid out in 2018”, and so this is not expected to be a one-off occurrence.
“The government plans to permanently keep economic growth at 3–5 percent, and eventually exceed the 5 percent level," he stated.