Retirees demand that the Government comply with raising pensions

President Dina Boluarte committed to raising the basic pension for retirees of the Pension Normalization Office (ONP) by S/100 for this year. So far it has not been fulfilledWorse still, its materialization depends on the pension reform proposal that the Executive Branch sent to the Congress.

Given the apathy of the authorities, the National Central Union of Retirees and Pensioners of Peru (Cenajupe) announced that they are coordinating to start a hunger strike so that the Government keeps its word.

“There is a mandate from the Constitutional Court that gives the Executive and Legislative three years to progressively increase pensions, but there is nothing to date,” Óscar Alarcón, general secretary of Cenajupe, assured La República.

Alarcón also maintains that no pension should be less than the Minimum Living Remuneration (RMV) and recognizes that the only way is through dialogue with the various Government institutions.

“I hope the president listens to us. There are pensions in the fishing sector that we know as ‘tip pension’, which do not exceed S/100 or S/250. That is not enough to cover a basic basket; Not even with S / 500 do we resolve payments for electricity, water and basic products for the pensioner’s family,” she declared.

For this reason, this February 8, a general assembly of unions in the country has been called to define the date of the start of the hunger strike at the national level, demanding better pensions for former workers.

According to Cenajupe figures, there are nearly 700,000 pensioners from DL 19990 – which is not the same as affiliates, who are more than 4.6 million – and about 250,000 from DL 20530, in addition to other regimes.

It should be noted that the last pension improvement has been given only for the 20530 regime, in S/30, as is usually done every year due to inflation. In the ONP alone, it is estimated that there are more than 36,000 pensioners benefiting, although César Abanto Revilla, partner at Rodríguez Angobaldo Abogados, remembers that the universe of those from DL 20530 extends to 300,000 people, who are distributed in ministries and state agencies.

When the president announced that the minimum pension would reach S/600—for Seniors’ Day—, the Minister of Economy, Alex Contreras, was quick to specify that the proposal is subject to the approval of the pension system reform, which is currently in the Economy Commission.

For its part, this working group proposes that pensions only be increased in 2025. Likewise, both documents could be evaluated again in March, with the start of the next legislature, but everything indicates that retirees will not wait until that moment.

S/50O is the minimum pension for workers who have contributed for at least 2 decades, and it has not been updated for 4 years.