Retirees in 2025 will receive 30% less monthly pension.

Social Security Expert İsa Karakaş stated that someone who retires in 2025 will receive 30% less monthly pension compared to 2024, considering the expected inflation data.

THE DATE OF SUBMITTING THE RETIREMENT PETITION IS IMPORTANT

The update coefficient at the date of submitting the retirement petition also affects the amount of lifelong retirement pension. Social Security Institution (SGK) acts according to the base earnings reported to the institution, the number of premium payment days, and the pension allocation rate during the working life of the employee who will retire. In years with high inflation, the date of submitting the retirement petition is also crucial in terms of the amount of the first pension to be allocated. In this context, Turkey Newspaper Writer and Social Security Expert İsa Karakaş evaluated to Ihlas News Agency reporter which date is more advantageous to retire.

THOSE WHO SUBMIT PETITION IN 2023 ARE MORE ADVANTAGEOUS

Karakaş stated that in the calculations made last year, the retirement petition submitted in 2023 was more advantageous compared to 2024, but this was not a significant difference. Pointing out that the rates this year are higher, Karakaş emphasized that this rate is the highest rate in the history of Turkey.

Karakaş stated that the rates formed may vary from person to person depending on the base earnings for insurance premiums, the number of insurance premium days, and the period worked, and said, "When the consumer price index (CPI) and the growth rate specified in the legislation of the Social Security Institution are taken into account for the pension allocation, we see that the inflation rates for 2023, which were taken into account when you submitted your retirement petition for 2024, were 64.77%, and the growth rate was 4.5%. Accordingly, we can say that the update coefficient is approximately 66.12%. In addition to all this data, in January 2023, the rate of increase in prices based on CPI was 37.57%. However, the government made an equalization of 11.68% and made an increase of 49.25% in January. When we look at July, there was an increase of 24.73%. Therefore, there was a cumulative increase of up to 87% in the salaries of SSI and SSI-BAĞ-KUR retirees," he said.

"THOSE WHO RETIRE THIS YEAR COMPARED TO NEXT YEAR..."

Karakaş stated that those who retire this year are more advantageous compared to 2024 and said, "We can say that retiring in 2024 is extremely advantageous compared to 2025. Although the inflation rates for the 4-month period of September, October, November, and December have not been finalized and the inflation rates have been updated to 41.5% with the Medium-Term Program (OVP), regardless of whether this rate is 42, 45, or 46, we can easily say that those who retire in 2024 will receive at least 30% higher pension compared to those who retire in 2025. According to my calculations, which I made based on different inflation data and growth rates, although the different scenarios have not been clarified yet, we can say that the difference will vary between at least 31.8% and 37%. If an SSI or SSI-BAĞ-KUR employee who has worked for the same periods and made the same notifications to the SGK retires on January 1, 2025, instead of December 2024, it is an unacceptable difference for their pension to be 30% lower," he explained.

Karakaş also stated that these rates only concern SSI and SSI-BAĞ-KUR retirees and do not apply to civil servant retirees.

"THE YEAR WITH THE MOST RETIREES AFTER 2023 MAY BE 2024"

Karakaş stated that the number of retirees in Turkey, including EYT, was the highest in 2023 and said, "With the difference of more than 30% this year, we can say that the majority of citizens who are eligible for retirement will retire in 2024 despite not wanting to. In addition, September 8, 2025 is the date when SSI and SSI-BAĞ-KUR EYT members who could not retire complete 25 years of insurance period. When we add all these, we can say that the year with the highest number of retirees after 2023 will be 2024," he said.

Karakaş also added that the active-passive balance was 2.1 before the EYT regulation, but this rate dropped below 1.5 with EYT. He also stated that due to this high difference in 2024, this rate may decrease even further.