SENIORS IN NEED OF CARE
The majority of Mongolian seniors are receiving a monthly pension of less than 350,000 MNT making a living with such little money is hard for them because, in general, most elderly live with unemployed adult chilren or two or three grandchildren, which is why they take out loans to help out their children. As of June 21, the average pension is 335,000 MNT and the minimum pension is 280,000 MNT.
As many old people cannot idly watch their children suffer from financial difficulties, they try to help them and some people take advantage and force their old parents to take out a pension loan for them. Pensioners easily acquire a pension loan at commercial banks as it does not have many requirements such as collateral.
Every political party vows that if they win a majority in Parliament, they will increase pension to earn more votes from seniors, but they fail to make any substantial improvements in pension increase.
Unfortunately, seniors don’t benefit from small increases in welfare as inflation rises faster than pension increase.
...It is commonly known that women and children become victims of domestic violence, but we don’t hear about the many seniors experiencing domestic violence behind closed doors...
The seniors’ single most repeated request to the government, especially to the president, prime minister and Cabinet ministers during their meetings with them, is reducing interest rates for pension loans.
The former minister of labor and social protection last year claimed that the ministry was collaborating with some state authorities to dramatically reduce interest rates for pension loans, but the minister’s claim was not put into practice to this date.
The most recent example is PresiAgency, dent Kh.Battulga’s initiative to reform the pension system, and during his meetings with people throughout the country, especially seniors, the president announced that he will reform the pension system by cooperating with the government as almost all pensioners have taken out a pension loan to deal with the financial challenges facing their children, but the president has not made any concrete action.
At the beginning of this year, the government increased pension amount by only 29,000 MNT, which wasn’t enough to make a difference for seniors who spend a lot on medical service and medicine, Tsagaan Sar, and other necessities for their children.
Member of Parliament O.Sodbileg said at a parliamentary session last week that stopping pension loan would be a better way for seniors to deal with their financial stresses, but many were against the lawmaker’s idea. On the other hand, S.Sodbileg’s idea is correct as seniors usually give their children the money they borrow from banks.
Last year, some lawmakers tried to address issues regarding pension loan by putting a time limit of six or ten months on pension loan duration and creating a regulation that leaves a pensioner some welfare each month and many seniors supported the idea, but these proposals have not been formalized to date.
Many old men work for private companies as a low-paid guard to earn money for their family’s daily needs as their wives also took their pension for a couple of months.
Retirement should be a time for rest, but it is a time of suffering for Mongolian seniors.
It is commonly known that women and children become victims of domestic violence, but we don’t hear about the many seniors experiencing domestic violence behind closed doors.
There are more than 100,000 seniors above the age of 65 in Mongolia, and it is unclear how many experience emotional abuse and negligence from their children, which are considered as forms of domestic violence.
Senior official of the National Police Captain E. Bay ar bay as gal an, said, “285 domestic violence cases were reported to the agency from January 1 to May 31, and only six seniors above the age of 55 were victims of domestic violence and four seniors were sheltered in centers for domestic violence victims.”
E. Bay ar bay as gal an noted that seniors don’t like reporting domestic violence to the police because they are patient and forgive their children, and underlined that perpetrators of violence against seniors are often their own children.
Section 11.7 of the Criminal Code states that an individual who commits violence against a senior can receive a prison sentence between six months and two years, or receive a travel ban for six months to two years, but this part is not applied too often to abusers.
The legislature and government should take care of Mongolian seniors by implementing regulations and laws that are already in place to protect seniors, creating a pension system that benefits them, and improving the quality of state medical assistance and service for seniors.