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With elections approaching, Erdogan is trying to cement his support with popular, if not populist, measures. In fact, the President of Turkey has announced the end of the retirement age limit, which gives one over 2 million Turks the possibility of immediately deciding to exercise the right to a pension, as announced at a press conference last night. Currently, the retirement age is 58 for women and 60 for men.
“With the regulation that we are approving today, around 2.25 million more people will be entitled to a pension. There will be no age limit for entitlement to a pension,” says a press release from the Bureau.
The measure was vociferously demanded by the opposition and by unions, who were calling for the mandatory number of working days before retirement to be made compulsory instead of when a minimum age is reached.
The measure affects people who have taken up gainful employment before September 1999 and who have worked for 20-25 years registered with social security.
The reform complements theminimum wage increase approved last week, six months before the general election. The minimum wage for 2023 is 8,500 Turkish lira (about 425 euros), an increase of 100 percent compared to last year and 55 percent compared to July last year. In his performance, Erdogan reminded that in order to be able to retire in Turkey, three conditions must be met: the number of days paid with salary, the contribution period and age, but the reform changes this scheme. To date, there are 13.9 million pensioners in Turkey. “The regulation we have adopted applies to those who meet the first two conditions but are only waiting to retire because of their age,” the President clarified.