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In April, the pension adjustment notice or announcement, lower than the per capita pension, can it be more?

With the spring breeze warming, the footsteps of April are quietly coming. In this season of recovery, a warmer news for the majority of retirees is the upcoming pension adjustment notice. According to the usual practice, the annual pension adjustment notice is usually announced in April, which is not only related to the vital interests of every retiree, but also the focus of social attention. However, behind this inclusive policy, a question has surfaced in people's minds: Can retirees whose pensions are below the per capita level enjoy more increases in this year's adjustment?

As the only source of income for most retirees, the amount of pension is directly related to their quality of life. Since 2005, the mainland pension has achieved 19 consecutive years of rise, and the per capita pension level has increased from the initial six or seven hundred yuan to the current about 3,500 yuan. However, this average figure does not fully reflect the reality of all retirees. The pension level of many enterprise retirees and flexibly employed retirees is still lower than the per capita level, only one or two thousand yuan. For this group of people, every adjustment of the pension is crucial.

The fairness of the pension adjustment mechanism is the focus of public attention. Currently, regardless of the level of pensions of retirees, they are adjusted according to a uniform approach. This means that retirees below the per capita pension level do not receive additional increases because of their lower income. The adjustment method mainly includes three ways: quota adjustment, peg adjustment and tilt adjustment. The fixed adjustment provides a fixed increase for all retirees, the linked adjustment determines the increase according to the retiree's contribution period and pension level, and the tilt adjustment is aimed at special groups such as elderly retirees and retirees in hardship and remote areas.

Before discussing whether pension adjustment will be tilted towards low-income retirees, we first need to understand the basic mechanism of pension adjustment. Pension adjustment usually includes three ways: fixed adjustment, linked adjustment and tilt adjustment. The fixed adjustment provides a fixed amount of increase for all eligible retirees, the linked adjustment determines the increase amount according to the individual's contribution years and the level of pension received, and the tilt adjustment is mainly aimed at special groups such as elderly retirees and retirees in hardship and remote areas. The combination of these three adjustment methods aims to achieve the fairness and incentive of pension adjustment.

Although the pension adjustment mechanism is designed to be fair, in practice, due to the existence of the linkage adjustment, people with higher pension levels are often able to obtain more growth. This is because the linked adjustment part is determined based on a certain percentage of the level of personal pensions, so retirees with high pension levels will naturally have more increases in this link. This also means that if you look at the adjustment mechanism alone, retirees below the per capita pension level will not receive additional tilt because of their own lower pension level.

This does not mean that low-income retirees do not have an advantage in pension adjustments. In fact, the level of pension adjustment each year is determined on the basis of the average pension level of all retirees in the previous year. This means that even retirees with lower pensions can participate in the adjustment according to this higher base. In 2023, for example, if the 3.8% increase in pensions is based on the level of pensions per capita in 2022, then all retirees, regardless of their pension level, will be adjusted according to this ratio. From this point of view, low-income retirees can actually get a certain degree of "concession" in the adjustment.

To illustrate this more visually, we can calculate it with a hypothetical example. Suppose a retiree has a pension of 2,500 yuan and 30 years of service, how will he benefit? Let's see how much he can increase his pension in the adjustment. If it is directly calculated according to the increase of 3.7%, he can increase by 2500 * 3.7% = 92.5 yuan. However, if the combined effect of the quota adjustment, the peg adjustment and the tilt adjustment are taken into account, his actual increase may be higher. Assuming that the fixed amount is adjusted to increase by 42 yuan per person, the linked adjustment is increased by 1.1 yuan for each full year of service, and the linked part of the pension level increases by 1.2%, then the pension that he can actually increase is 42 yuan + 30 * 1.1 yuan + 2500 * 1.2% = 105 yuan, which is 12.5 yuan more than the result calculated directly according to the increase.

Although the pension adjustment mechanism does not directly give an additional tilt to retirees below the per capita pension level, they can actually get a relatively larger increase in each adjustment because of the way the adjustment level is determined. Of course, this does not fully compensate for the gap in pension levels, but it can at least alleviate the plight of low-income retirees to a certain extent. In the future, we hope that policymakers can further optimize the pension adjustment mechanism to better protect the legitimate rights and interests of every retiree, so that they can enjoy the dignity and stability they deserve in their old age.