Japan Press Weekly

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2014 January 22 - 28 [WELFARE]

More than 100,000 elderly file complaints about cuts in pension benefits

The number of elderly people who filed complaints against authorities about cuts in pension benefits topped 100,000, the Japan Pensioners’ Union announced on January 26.

The union in December last year launched a drive to organize the elderly into a movement to lodge administrative complaints against the government’s pension reduction. It received complaint forms from 101,348 aged people in just one and a half months.

The union will submit the collected complaints to the Welfare Ministry and relevant local welfare authorities, including pension offices, simultaneously at the end of this month.

Union Chair Tomita Yasuhiro said, “Pensioners are really angry at the government measure. The government should seriously take into consideration the reasons for our anger. We will continue this movement.”

The Abe government plans to slash benefits by a total of 2.5% in three stages between October 2013 and April 2015. It cleared the first stage of the plan last October with a 1% pension cut.