Ljubljana - The National Assembly confirmed in a unanimous vote on Thursday amendments to the pension and disability insurance act that provide a tiered indexation of pensions as a means of bridging the gap between pensions and wages caused by austerity measures during the economic and financial crisis.

The pensions of those who retired before the end of 2010 will increase by 3.5%, for those who retired in 2011 by 1.7%, and for all the others by 1%.

These groups were affected differently by austerity measures, and the tiered indexation, proposed by the coalition, will put them all on equal footing.

The indexation will be implemented with January pensions, which are paid at the end of the month.

At the same time, minimum pensions, guaranteed pension and the minimum amount of disability pension will rise by 1%.

Calculations by ZPIZ, the pension insurer, show EUR 145 million will need to be secured for the implementation of the raise annually.

Labour Ministry State Secretary Mateja Ribič said the indexation would preserve the real value of pensions and noted that it restored confidence in the pension system, which had been undermined by repeated changes to pensions via other laws in previous years.

During the debate ahead of the vote, the ruling Democrats (SDS) noted the importance of social security of all groups of pensioners, with many of them already being in distress before the Covid-19 epidemic.

Deputies of the coalition New Slovenia (NSi) called for a balance in the long run between pension from pension insurance, the retirement age and the guaranteed pension.

The Pensioners' Party (DeSUS) is happy that the deficits from the past will compensated for, and noted that a regular indexation of pensions of 4% would follow in February.

Opposition National Party (SNS) MPs said that the solution followed the principles of solidarity, welfare and economic justice.

The opposition Marjan Šarec List (LMŠ) said that the system needed to ensure decent pensions and the opposition Social Democrats (SD) that the problem of low pensions should be tackled with greater availability of bonuses.

According to the opposition Left, the main goal should be providing protection to the poorest pensioners in a fair manner, but the proposed solution does not do this.

The opposition Alenka Bratušek Party (SAB) and the unaffiliated deputies warned of partial interventions being detrimental to the pension system, noting it was necessary to regulate the pension system in the future on a more uniform basis.

This one-off adjustment comes on top of the scheduled annual increase in pensions that will affect all pensioners equally. In February, all pensions will thus rise by 4%.