Ageing Swiss populace votes for 13th month of pension payments

SWISS voters on Sunday overwhelmingly backed a proposal to increase pension payments.

The move was hailed as historic by supporters at a time when the country’s ageing population faces surging living expenses. A call by trade unions to add a 13th monthly pension payment each year secured nearly 60 per cent backing, final results showed. But a separate vote to raise Switzerland’s retirement age to 66 from 65 was soundly rejected by three quarters of voters.

“This is historic,” Pierre-yves Maillard, head of the Swiss Trade Union Federation (SGB), said.

Switzerland’s Green Party celebrated a “significant victory for the many retirees who will see their situations improve”. While opinion polls had indicated strong popular support for the “Better living in retirement” proposal, suspense had lingered on whether it would secure the necessary majorities in most of Switzerland’s 26 cantons.

But in the end the initiative won the double-majority needed to pass, with backing from 58.24 per cent of voters and 16 cantons. Support soared above 70 per cent in six cantons including more than 82 per cent in the western Jura region.

It marks the first time that Swiss voters have accepted a popular proposal to alter the country’s social security system, according to the Ats-keystone news agency. It is also the first time Swiss trade unions have succeeded in pushing through an initiative at the polls under the country’s direct democratic system. It called for pensioners to receive an additional monthly payment, similar to the 13th monthly salary that many employees receive in Switzerland and other European countries.

Maximum monthly state pension payments in Switzerland are 2,450 Swiss francs (£2,190.55) for individuals and 3,675 Swiss francs (£3,285.82) for married couples. That does not go far in a country consistently ranked among the most expensive in the world. Rent for a typical two-bedroom apartment in Swiss cities is at least 3,000 Swiss francs (£2682.30) and a coffee costs upwards of five Swiss francs (£4.47).

Left-leaning parties supported the initiative, which was fiercely fought by Right-wing and centrist parties as well as the Swiss government and parliament.