The pensioners demonstrated on Thursday for their demands outside the Ministry of Finance, where they approved a memorandum, which they will forward and deliver to the President of the Republic, Nikos Christodoulidis, requesting a meeting to discuss the problems they face, the General Secretary of the Union of Cypriot Pensioners told KYPE (EKYSY) after the event at the Ministry of Finance.
"We will give the memorandum to the President of the Republic and we can see that there is a reluctance to meet and discuss the demands put in the memorandum, there is a decision to escalate the fight measures", Mr. Skarparis added.
The memorandum will be forwarded to the President of the Republic within the day and will be delivered by hand most likely on Friday, he said.
The event at the Ministry of Finance took place immediately after the EKYSY Conference, which took place from 9:00 to 11:00 at the PEO building in Nicosia.
Mr. Sparparis explained that the conference approved a memorandum to the President of the Republic, which essentially repeats the pensioners' problems that were submitted to the current and previous Governments and continue to remain unresolved.
The movement of pensioners demands with the memorandum the immediate taking of measures to deal with punctuality, which significantly affects the standard of living and mercilessly hits the very life of pensioners.
He added that the strong protest and indignation of the delegates is also expressed over the fact that "some crumbs given by the Government have been cut off".
Continuing, he said that it is understandable that in a period in which the accuracy continues, the fact that in a period of heat the Government stopped the meager 50 euros that it gave to the low pensioners and now it will stop the electricity subsidy, it will stop the zero rate to VAT.
He added that there continues to be a high cost of purchasing medicines through the NHS.
He went on to state that we are insisting on the demand to remove the 12% penalty which reduces even the lowest pensions and the Government is making a mockery of us.
Saying that the people were outraged with the pensioners' cup of anger overflowing, Mr. Skarparis said that we approved our memorandum outside the Ministry of Finance and shouted our demands symbolically expecting that the Government would open its ears and listen to the demands of the third age.
Referring to the Conference, Mr. Skarparis said that on Thursday, October 3rd, five hundred elderly people showed up en masse and in a dynamic way at the conference of the Union of Cypriot Pensioners.
The memorandum to the President of the Republic lists the problems of the pensioners and a request to arrange a meeting between the President of the Republic and the leadership of EKYSY as soon as possible.
In the memorandum it is stated that the All-Cypriot Congress of EKYSY again dealt with the serious problems of the elderly.
It is added that although the EKYSY in the last 11 years, has made many steps towards the previous government and many mobilizations and protest events as well as several meetings with Ministers of the Christodoulidis Government to this day, many pensioners' problems continue to remain unresolved, resulting in several thousand of them suffering, suffering and torture.
It is further stated that the conference, after taking into account the continued strong voices of protest from the pensioners "who can no longer bear the mockery, nor bear the burdens of the very high cost of living due to the exactness which has brought them to their knees, emphasizes in the most unequivocally that through the EKYSY the pensioners, demanding respect, will continue the struggle to solve the chronic serious problems they face, by taking immediate and effective measures to put a barrier to the constant pressure on the quality of life and the standard of living of the pensioners ».
Further with the memorandum, the pensioners demand immediate measures to deal with the accuracy, permanent compensatory financial provision to the pensioners, inclusion of low pensioners in the special pricing with code 08 to have a 20% discount on the EAC bill and the reduction of VAT, price reduction of fuel with the reinstatement of the reduced VAT rate and the reduction of taxes on fuel and the extension of the electricity subsidy measure which must be increased.
They also request an increase in the poverty threshold, inclusion of returnees in the plan and non-calculation of the KOAP sponsorship in the annual incomes taken into account for the purposes of the plan, as well as the contribution of pensioners to the National Social Insurance Fund.
Among other things, they are asking for an immediate increase in the amount paid for basic needs at least by the rate of inflation from 2014 and from there, a corresponding increase in the rent allowance for EEE recipients, an increase in the amount provided to cover the cost of care for both institutional and home care and repeat the request to abolish the 12% penalty for those who retired or will retire at the age of 63. They report that the government's proposals to date do not solve the problem and are not accepted.
