{"id":48434,"date":"2025-08-06T18:10:16","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T18:10:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/48434\/"},"modified":"2025-08-06T18:10:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T18:10:16","slug":"argentinas-javier-milei-vetoes-bills-that-would-have-raised-pensions-and-disability-benefits-argentina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/48434\/","title":{"rendered":"Argentina\u2019s Javier Milei vetoes bills that would have raised pensions and disability benefits | Argentina"},"content":{"rendered":"

Argentina\u2019s president, Javier Milei<\/a>, has vetoed three bills that would have increased pensions and disability benefits, prompting outrage from advocacy groups and the lawmakers who had approved the measures.<\/p>\n

The self-styled anarcho-capitalist claimed the bills would \u201cbreak the government\u2019s fiscal balance\u201d and insisted there was \u201cno money\u201d to fund the measures, which the National Congress had approved in early July.<\/p>\n

Pensioners have been among the hardest hit by Milei\u2019s so-called \u201cchainsaw\u201d austerity drive<\/a> and have been holding weekly demonstrations outside congress every Wednesday, come rain or shine.<\/p>\n

Overriding the presidential veto would require a two-thirds majority in parliament. Should that happen, Milei has already announced he intends to challenge the bills in court.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s impossible to survive on a minimum pension,\u201d said Eduardo Barnei, 79, from Berazategui on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, who said he received 370,000 pesos last month (about \u00a3205), including a 70,000-peso bonus.<\/p>\n

One of the bills vetoed by Milei proposed a 7.2% increase for all pensions and would have raised the monthly bonus to 110,000 pesos.<\/p>\n

Even with the adjustment, the total would still fall well short of the 1,200,523 pesos (\u00a3662) that the Defensor\u00eda de la Tercera Edad \u2013 an ombudsman for older people \u2013 estimates as the minimum monthly cost of living for a pensioner.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Last month] I had to spend more than 100,000 pesos on medicine, another 80,000 on gas and electricity, and now I have to survive on what\u2019s left. It\u2019s just not possible,\u201d said Barnei, who began working at 15 and continued until his retirement at 68.<\/p>\n

\u201cLife is very difficult,\u201d said Edda Beitia, 77, from the greater Buenos Aires area, who has been attending the weekly pensioners\u2019 protests \u2013 often outnumbered by security forces including military, federal and naval police, who try to stop them from blocking roads, frequently using force, including by firing teargas and rubber bullets.<\/p>\n

In March, after football supporters joined pensioners in protest, 124 demonstrators were detained and 46 people were injured in clashes with security forces \u2013 among them a photographer who was seriously wounded<\/a> after being struck in the head by a teargas canister.<\/p>\n

\u201cI keep coming to the protests every week because I think of all the pensioners who, like me, are struggling. This fight is a collective fight,\u201d said Beitia.<\/p>\n

Milei also vetoed a law that would have allowed women over 60 and men over 65 to retire even if they had not completed the required 30 years of pension contributions.<\/p>\n

The third bill would have established a pension for people with disabilities and granted access to a medical care programme \u2013 but it too was entirely vetoed by the far-right president.<\/p>\n

The government argued the new laws would result in additional spending<\/a> of more than 7tn pesos (\u00a33.8bn) in 2025 and about 17tn pesos (\u00a39.3bn) in 2026, describing the measures as \u201cirresponsible\u201d for failing to specify the source of funding.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd even if the veto were overturned, we\u2019ll take it to court,\u201d Milei said three weeks ago<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In a statement on Monday<\/a>, the government declared: \u201cThere is no money, and the only way to make Argentina great again is through effort and honesty \u2013 not by repeating the same old recipes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several lawmakers condemned the government\u2019s decision. Senator Pablo Blanco called it \u201cregrettable and shameful<\/a>\u201d, while Senator Oscar Parrilli described it<\/a> as \u201ca policy of cruelty towards the most vulnerable sectors of society\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are barely surviving but many of us now have to help our children who have lost their jobs,\u201d said Beitia. \u201cI also think about all the young people who will never get to retire. The government should be ashamed of themselves for what they are doing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Argentina\u2019s president, Javier Milei, has vetoed three bills that would have increased pensions and disability benefits, prompting outrage…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48435,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[64,63,99,186,184,185],"class_list":{"0":"post-48434","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-finance","12":"tag-personal-finance","13":"tag-personalfinance"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48434\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}