Estonian government okays 5.1 percent pension rise

  • 2017-03-09
  • BNS/TBT Staff

TALLINN - The Estonian government on Thursday endorsed 1.051 as the value of the index of state pensions for 2017, which means that pensions will rise by 5.1 percent on average from April 1.

The change would raise the old-age pension of a person with 15 years of pensionable service to 248.41 euros a month. With 30 years of pensionable service the new size of the state pension will be 334.91 euros and with 44 years of pensionable service 415.65 euros a month.

The value of the index is calculated to the extent of 80 percent based on the change in last year's social tax receipts and to the extent of 20 percent based on the change in the consumer price index (CPI). According to data of Statistics Estonia, CPI inched up 0.1 percent last year while figures available from the Finance Ministry show that 6.4 percent more social tax money than the year before flowed into pension insurance.

Subject to indexation are the pensions of 417,516 people and the pension increase this year is estimated to cost the government 65.5 million euros.