The crucial issue is the content of the pension bill

Statement by AKEL C.C. Spokesperson, Giorgos Koukoumas

 

12 August 2026, AKEL C.C. Press Office, Nicosia

The country’s pension system needs a genuine and progressive reform that will support the thousands of pensioners in Cyprus who currently live in poverty or even destitution. It is no coincidence that Cyprus has the highest proportion across Europe of pensioners who continue to work after their retirement because their pension isn’t enough to live on.

The crucial question is not merely when the government will table the pension reform bill in Parliament, but above all what the content of this bill will be.

How many pensioners will it ultimately benefit, and to what extent?

Will it be a comprehensive reform that addresses all aspects of the pension system, or not?

Will it continue to set the poverty line at €794 – as it has been for the past 15 years – or will it raise it to at least €1,103, as determined by the state’s own Statistical Service?

Will it provide a fair solution to the 12 per cent penalty?

Will it put an end to the injustice suffered by widowers whose wives died before 2018 and who are not entitled to a widow’s pension?

Will it ensure the extension of Provident Funds to cover all working people in the country – of whom only 27 per cent currently benefit – through the extension of collective agreements?

How will tomorrow’s pensioners have a dignified income if today’s working people do not have Provident Funds?

These are the questions to which AKEL, but above all today’s and tomorrow’s pensioners and society as a whole, are awaiting answers from the Christodoulides government.

What is certain is that our elderly demand and are entitled to dignity and a good quality of life.