The Turkish Laborer Pensioners Association (TIED) said on Monday that out of more than 4 million people who receive a pension from the Social Security Authority (SSK), 81.96 percent received less than YTL 569.3 a month, which equates to the hunger line. 

The hunger line is defined as the minimum amount necessary for the monthly food expenses of a family of four. 

According to a TIED study conducted using SSK data, 4.38 million people received pensions from the authority, 3.28 million of whom are living with an income below the hunger line. 

No SSK pensioner receives more than the YTL 1,854.4 poverty line -- defined as the necessary food expenses, transportation, clothes, rent, electricity, water and health expenditures for a family of four -- calculated as of March 2006. 
TIED Ankara Chairman Recep Orhan said out of the 1.66 million people who received their pensions from the Public Servants' Social Security Fund (Emekli Sandığı), 502,000 received less than the hunger line. 

Orhan said despite the improvement in the economy, pensioners had yet to benefit from it. Most pensioners are trying to survive with very little money, he said. 

‘We want a share of the growth': 

Orhan asked the government to increase pensions to at least the hunger threshold, calling for the new social security reform bill to be amended to allow pensioners to benefit from the economic improvement. 

They would support the reform only if pensioners' conditions were made more balanced, he said. “Unfortunately, we continue to see that the inequalities are preserved in the reforms that the government wants to pass. The gap between and within institutions is increasing,” Orhan added.