Federal Pensions Minister Daniel Bacquelaine (MR) wants to increase the maximum amount of pensions, the newspapers L’Echo and De Tijd reported on Wednesday.
A proposal that comes while the Federal Pensions Service publishes the latest budget estimates of the cost of pensions in Belgium. Between 2020 and 2030, the growth of this cost remains significant, but draws a curve with a gentler slope than expected. In 2020, pensions will represent a budgetary cost of almost 52 billion euros. An amount that will increase from 1 to 1.5 billion per year to reach 62.9 billion in 2030.
In 2010, pensions weighed almost half as much, but if spending between 2020 and 2030 had been sustained similar to the previous decade, the budget would have jumped more than $ 87 billion.
Asked about the advisability of a minimum pension of 1,500 euros, wanted by different parties, Daniel Bacquelaine replied: “I am not against the principle, but two related problems must be resolved.” The first is the maximum pension that can be received by retirees. Today it is 1,821 euros (net) and the Minister wishes to increase it to 2,250 euros. “If we continue to increase the minimum pension without increasing this salary ceiling, everyone will have the minimum pension in the long term. The concept of work reward would disappear”, he invokes.
The second problem, for the minister, is the similarity between the pension at 1,500 euros and the minimum wage, established today at 1,521 euros. “There is a phenomenal job trap that nobody talks about. For me, if we increase the minimum pension, we must substantially increase the guaranteed minimum wage.”
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