13th Month Pension Arrives in Accounts Today

The pension is arriving in accounts today. This time it is double, as the 13th month extra pension is also due this month for around two and a half million retirees. To mark the occasion, we look back at the circumstances under which the decision to abolish the additional benefit was taken in 2009.

The 13th month pension is arriving in the accounts today, with a total of 535 billion forints being spent on the benefit from the budget (487.1 billion forints of which for those receiving pension benefits). The government began to restore the payment of the 13th month pension in 2021. The decision was for a gradual reinstatement, but in 2022, instead of the planned two-week benefit, those entitled to it received the full monthly amount. A year before the 2022 parliamentary elections, Prime Minister Viktor Orban stated that he wanted to face the people having given back what the leftist-liberal government had taken from them before 2010. It is worth recalling how the extra one-month benefit was revoked in 2009.

The pension is arriving in accounts today. This time, a double amount is being transferred because the 13th month pension is also due this month  (Photo: Shutterstock)

Gordon Bajnai held several positions in the government led by Ferenc Gyurcsany, and after its fall, he took over at the helm in mid-April 2009. Before this, the country had been saved from bankruptcy by the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the European Commission, and the decision-makers primarily tackled the problems with austerity measures. These measures did not spare the older generations. Gordon Bajnai's program included, among other steps:

• the postponement of the 2009 pension adjustment to January 1, 2010,
• the elimination of the reduced pension adjustment in 2010,
• the withdrawal of the second installment of the 2009 13th month pension,
• the abolition of the 13th month allowance from 2010.

Fidesz, an opposition party at the time, considered all of this unacceptable. They did not agree with the abolition of either the 13th month pension or the 13th month salary in the public sector, nor did they support the reduction of family allowance, childcare benefit (GYED), or childcare allowance (GYES). The party labeled the government illegitimate because it had not received a mandate from the voters to exercise power or to implement austerity measures.

When MPs voted to abolish the 13th month pension

On May 11, 2009, the National Assembly passed the proposals that adversely affected pensioners, with the support of MPs from the Socialists (MSZP) and the Free Democrats (SZDSZ). Calculations at the time showed that the pension-related austerity measures took 100 billion forints from the elderly in 2009 and more than 280 billion forints in 2010. The largest item in this amount was the abolition of the 13th month pension, which would have meant a total benefit of 160 billion forints in 2009–2010.

When the full 13th month benefit was reinstated in 2022, Viktor Orban stated that this step would erase the sad legacy of the Gyurcsany-Bajnai era. The government had already promised in 2010 to preserve the value of pensions. This goal was so successfully delivered that the real value of pensions increased by more than 20 percent compared to 2010, and the amount in forints more than doubled. This year's budget allocates a total of 7,200 billion forints for pensions and pension-like benefits (of which 6,545.7 billion forints are for pensions).

The government insists on preserving the benefit

In a recent  interview with Kossuth Radio, the Hungarian prime minister highlighted that Brussels wants to take away the 13th month pension, and economists backing the opposition parties regularly attack the benefit. Their studies and recommendations are published before every heating season, but they must be rejected, Viktor Orban stressed. The 13th month pension must be protected, he emphasized. He stated that they have defended it so far and will continue to do so, for the sake of pensioners and the faith and hope in the future. In his assessment, the 13th month pension is a mental, psychological, and political issue, with economic considerations coming only afterward.

Meanwhile, Peter Magyar's team of program writers is talking about abolishing the 13th month pension and not even paying regular pensions, or at the very least, taxing this form of benefit. The circle around the Tisza Party is not far removed from the idea of wishing for the death of the elderly. Like other opposition leaders, they also believe that the mass death of pensioners would significantly reduce the number of voters for the governing party.