No age limit to those 'hindered from retirement due to age': Erdoğan

ANKARA

Some 2.25 million people are now entitled to retire immediately after the government announced a new regulation that eliminated the age requirement for retirement.

“There will be no age limit to the use of retirement right,” President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told reporters at the presidential complex in Ankara on Dec. 28.

The new regulation regarding those hindered from retirement due to age (EYT), has taken its final form following long and comprehensive preparations, Erdoğan said.

A law passed in 1999 raised the age of retirement to 58 for females and 60 for males, effectively ending earlier schemes that had provided many the opportunity to retire early. Now, with the new regulation the government removed this age requirement for retirement.

There are 13.9 million pensioners in Türkiye.

“With major rises in minimum wage, public salaries and pensions, we have already shown and continue to show that we stand with fixed-income employees who suffer from the global crisis’ effects on our country. This will of ours is also reflected by the new minimum wage we announced last week,” Erdoğan said.

“Today, we are once again displaying our support by sharing the good news about a step that meets the retirement age expectations of the employees who started to work before 1999. I believe that we will rid the system of any kind of disputes and streamline it through this regulation, which actually means a big sacrifice on the state’s part,” he added.

Türkiye, which adds 1 million people to its workforce each year, successfully manages its social security system, Erdoğan said.