More than 85% of the retirees in Argentina, approximately 6.5 million, earn an average of 58,500 pesos, the equivalent of 265 dollars, from retirement minimum and barely enough to cover a third of their monthly expenses for food, medicine and rent that increase at the rate of a inflation uncontrolled.
With trembling hands, a group of old men arranges the lottery cards on one of the tables. Instead of chips, they resort to clothing buttons to mark the numbers and in a small container they keep their bets in coins or low-denomination crumpled bills.
Although it has already become customary, the imminence of the game still arouses enthusiasm in their dull eyes.
The table games and a snack that they share twice a week in a retirement center in Caballito and Villa Crespo, middle-class neighborhoods of Buenos Aires, are a palliative for economic misadventures for this group of men and women over 80 years of age. that they suffer daily and were unthinkable before retirement.
“This center has middle-class people. We deprive ourselves of many things that we used to do”said Betty Santucci, 85, the manager of the place. And she quietly confessed that “I did something that I had never done in my life: ask for free medicine”.
“I can’t even pay the rent, the expenses (common apartment expenses), services and I have to eat. I said that I have two children who bring me the ‘little package’ (money)”said Paulina Najnudel, 85, while playing the board game with other retirees. “But it makes me, not ashamed, but sad because after having worked so many years…”.
Argentina had one of the most progressive pension systems in South America. In current comparison, however, the minimum pension measured in dollars is among the lowest in the region, just above Venezuela, according to a study by local consultancy Focus Market.
Retirements increase according to a mobility formula calculated by wages and tax collection. Between January 2022 and March 2023, they rose 72.5%. But in the same period inflation accumulated more than 100%.
“The minimum wage is not even enough for the basics. Suddenly, those of us who had the misfortune of losing their husbands because we received retirement and pension are a little more relieved. It’s not a business either, it would be better to have the husband”Ana Falcone commented wryly on a recent afternoon at the retirement center.
To compensate for the loss of purchasing power, the government of Alberto Fernández ordered a monthly reinforcement of 15,000 pesos (67 dollars) to retirees with lower salaries, despite which they do not cover all basic expenses.
“When we retirees go shopping, we don’t buy by the kilo, but by one or two products, be it onions, potatoes or whatever. We only buy two or three products because for the kilo we never arrive”detailed Mercedes Villafañe, 80, during a lottery game. “At the moment, there is no hope.”
The Ombudsman for the Elderly, an autonomous body in charge of defending the rights of the elderly, reported in early April that the basic food basket for the elderly costs 202,064 pesos, the equivalent of US$ 914, which represents an increase of 33%. with respect to the last calculation of October. Rent, food and medicines are the items with the highest incidence.
“We are in a situation of crisis of a humanitarian nature in the sector”warned Eugenio Semino, head of the public body. “The retiree must choose between taking medication or not, eating or not eating.”
“It leads us to have consequences in daily life that are not really socially visible. I have been doing gerontology for 40 years and I have never seen, for example, that medication is no longer consumed according to the professional’s prescription, but what the retiree can buy. This means that the treatments are neutral, they do not have any type of positive result ”lamented the expert.
Night falls and the day of games comes to an end.
Najnudel and the rest of the elderly return to their homes to deal at the end of their lives with a reality that they did not imagine.
“I come here (to the retirement center), I have a good time and I am with good people. I spend a few hours fine, but I come back to my house and it’s still the same. I hope all this changes. It has to change. I would like to have hope, but I will no longer be there for when things come.”
Source: AP
Source: Gestion
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