Právo: Pensioners are financially most vulnerable

Prague, Feb 13 (CTK) - Old-age pensioners constitute the most threatened group of population in the sphere of finances in the Czech Republic, daily Pravo writes yesterday, referring to an analysis to be debated by the government.

It is doubly true of those who cannot work and old-age pension is their only source of income, Pravo writes.

The analysis reveals that the costs of oldest households grew by 4.8 percent in the first nine months of the past year, it adds.

This was the biggest rise of all population groups, Pravo writes.

The average old-age pension was 10,764 crowns a month in 2012, only 2.2 percent more than in the previous year, it adds.

In the consumer basket, the prices of food, housing and drugs and medical care saw the highest increases of 7.1 percent, 8.2 percent and 11.9 percent, respectively, Pravo writes.

The Council of the Elderly in the Czech Republic (RSCR) says that the rise in living costs was to be covered by the indexation of pensions from January 2012, but the average pensions were only increased by 137 crowns and the lowest by 67 crowns.

Some 149,000 Czechs receive the old-age pension of under 8,000 crowns, 1.325 million between 8,000 and 13,000 crowns and 88,300 pensioners over 14,500, Pravo writes.

Out of the total 2.8 million Czech pensioners, only 182,000 still work, it adds.

RSCR head Zdenek Pernes says the real purchasing power of low pensions permanently falls.

The indexation system is imperfect, discriminating against the people with the lowest pensions, he adds.

"The government is behaving the worst to the elderly from the historical viewpoint," Pernes is quoted as saying.

Labour and Social Affairs Minister Ludmila Muellerova (TOP 09) is reluctant to change the relevant legislation, Pravo writes.

"In the first half of the year, nothing will change," she is quoted as saying.

Muellerova has admitted that lonely elderly who live in large cities face great problems due to the rising housing costs in particular.

"They constitute a really threatened group as they cannot move anywhere else," Muellerova said.

"There is no social housing and the law on it is not in sight," she added.

"The Regional Development Ministry wants to draft an analysis of the current state of affairs by mid-year," Muellerova said.

The analysis for the government says that the proportion of housing costs in total expenditures of the households of the elderly has crossed 30 percent. Along with food, it makes up over one half of all their expenditures, Pravo writes.

Female pensioners over 65 are the most threatened group. Due to the differences in wages between men and women, their old-age pensions are lower, it adds.

Men's average pension was about 11,950 crowns last year, but that of women only 9,790 crowns.

($1 = 18.838 crowns)