Ministry to pay Christmas bonuses to pensioners

[darinka]

MANY pensioners in Slovakia will receive Christmas bonuses from the state this year, thanks to the generosity of the new socialist government of Prime Minister Robert Fico.

Labour Minister Viera Tomanová has announced that all pensioners receiving up to Sk10,365 per month will receive up to an extra Sk2,000 at the end of 2006, the SME daily wrote.

Pensioners who regularly receive less than Sk3,455 a month will get a bonus of Sk2,000, while those getting up to Sk6,910 will be sent Sk1,750, and those being paid up to Sk10,365 will receive Sk1,500.

The average monthly old-age pension in Slovakia is currently Sk7,735.

Tomanová said that people currently drawing early retirement pensions will not be given the bonuses. "It’s rather tough, but we have no money to spare," she said.

The announced Christmas bonuses for pensioners will cost the state Sk1.7 billion in unplanned budget expenditures.



for comparing, exchange rates:

1 EUR = 37,510 Sk
1 GBP = 55,595 Sk
1 USD = 29,305 Sk

[darinka]

Jobless rate still declining




UNEMPLOYMENT in Slovakia continued to fall in July 2006 according to Labour Bureau data, dropping to 10.2 percent, or 0.16 percentage points less than in June.

The jobless rate, calculated from the number of people registered with the Labour Bureau as unemployed, was the lowest in Bratislava region at just 2.57 percent. The highest unemployment rate was recorded in Rimavská Sobota district in south-eastern Slovakia at 28.73 percent.

The Slovak Statistics Bureau (ŠÚ), meanwhile, recorded a higher jobless rate that it calculated from a labour force poll, which is generally regarded as providing a more realistic picture of joblessness in Slovakia.

According to the latest ŠÚ data, the jobless rate in Slovakia in the first quarter of 2006 was 14.9 percent, which is still the lowest unemployment rate calculated in that manner that the country has seen since 1999.

[sandywinder]

I am pleased to hear it Darinka.

In Labour Britain unemployment is rising and there are more unemployed than at any time in the last six years.

And we all know that as this is not an election year, Brown has not given the pensioners a £250 Xmas heating bribe as he did last year. And we all know that gas and electricity prices have rocketted up in the last twelve months.

But does Gordon care? Does he bollocks.

[darinka]

I think no-one cares. i gave to my post exchange rates for purpose to compare our economy. the prices are still higher. like you wrote, gas and electricity. my grandma`s pension is around 8000 Sk. she has to buy her medicines for 1000sk a month. for the flat she has to pay 2811 Sk plus gas, electricity is another 540 sk and for television (but it is quarterly). the rest is for food. one bread costs around 25-30 Sk and kilo of pork is around 150Sk.
so she has around 3000 sk for food a month and she hopes that any extraordinary event will happen. the biggest surprise is when she saves around 500 sk.

[darinka]

i think she will be glad when she will get 1000 sk bonus on christmas. i hope she will be still alive.