The National Institute of Social Security (INSS) has published pension data until August. According to this official source, the pensioners of Hego Euskal Herria are the ones who pay the most in the Spanish state – 1,080 euros per month, compared to 888 euros on the State average – as they are the ones who pay the most for payroll. Support for people in retirement, permanent disability and widows and orphans would be included in this section. Retirement aid accounts for most of this stock, namely 63.5%, and an average of EUR 1,236 per month.

However, these statistics hide another reality, such as the high percentage of pensioners who do not reach EUR 1 000, which is often considered as a minimum to cover basic needs. Of the total of 660,000 recipients of pensions in Hego Euskal Herria, 454,064 are those who do not reach these thousand euros, which is 68.8%. In other words, seven out of ten pensioners receive less than EUR 1000. In addition, 312,163 people (47.2%) receive less than 648.6 euros, so they do not reach the inter-professional minimum wage in 2015. The income section that brings the most pensioners together is 350 to 600 euros per month, while 253,443 people receive the amount that collects the most money each month.

To this must be added that the value that is increasing each year does not reach 0.25% – one or two euros per month – and that the future of pensions is unknown – the pension fund is being spent and the Social Security Fund has doubled the deficit this year, to reach EUR 4.4 billion. For our pensioners, the reality is bloody. They are miserable pensions that cause poverty. It is necessary to continue fighting for its own Social Security, as many experts believe that such an instrument would be sustainable in the Basque Country. In the meantime, the Basque institutions should undertake to supplement the lower pensions, which do not reach EUR 1,000 per year.