Halle (dpa/sa) - The average pension rose in Saxony-Anhalt last year. A spokeswoman for the State Statistical Office said on Tuesday in Halle that each pension recipient received an average monthly pension benefit of EUR 1,438, around EUR 30 more than in the previous year. The approximately 720,000 pensioners residing in Saxony-Anhalt received a total of around 12.4 billion euros. The pension benefit thus increased by 1.9 percent. The number of pension recipients fell by 0.2 percent over the same period.
Nationwide, 21.9 million people received benefits from statutory, private or company pensions last year. A total of around 350 billion euros was paid out, around 8.5 billion euros (2.5 percent) more than in the previous year. This was announced by the Federal Statistical Office recently.
According to the statistics authority, almost 65 percent of pension benefits were taxable (227 billion euros). Since 2015, the proportion has increased by 9.7 percentage points. The reason for the increase is the new regulation of the taxation of retirement income in the Retirement Income Act of 2005.
