UDMR's Antal Arpad: In a normal country there is no such thing as special pensions

Sfantu Gheorghe mayor Antal Arpad from the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania (UDMR) said on Thursday that he is no supporter of special pensions and that in his view, the contribution to the pension fund should be the only criterion that should be considered when the pension amount is determined. "I believe that in a normal country the institution of special pensions does not exist. Each citizen should collect pension benefits according to his or her contribution to the pension fund. The amount should be proportional to the length of service and to the contribution. I would like to live in a country where every citizen should be able to access a website and calculate their pension on their own. This would be the normal way from my point of view. (...) I repeat, I think the normal way would be for each citizen to collect a pension depending on the amount of his or her contribution, and this should apply for everyone," said Sfantu Gheorghe mayor Antal Arpad. He added that until three years ago the mayors had very low wages but the situation has improved after the enforcement of the new wage law that has also corrected certain pay inequities. Antal Arpad cited as a highly positive example the fact that in Hungary, depending on the number of children they have, female retirees get certain facilities such as earlier retirement or a higher pension. AGERPRES (RO - author: Oana Malina Negrea, editor: Marius Frăţila; EN - author: Simona Klodnischi, editor: Simona Iacob)