Pensioners in Osmaniye Insistently Demand Additional Raise as Rents Become a Means of Survival

In line with the June inflation data announced by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK), the July raise rates for millions of SSK, Bağ-Kur, and civil servant retirees have become clear. However, the official data did not find full reflection on the ground, causing great disappointment among the retired community. In our interviews on the streets of Osmaniye, retirees clearly stated that the new wage increases melted away in the face of current inflation and were insufficient to maintain their standard of living. The helplessness felt against rising living costs is causing retirees to lose faith in the current economic regulations.

Exorbitantly increasing house rents across the city stand out as the biggest problem for retired citizens. Many retirees state that the lowest house rent in Osmaniye varies between 10 and 15 thousand TL, making it impossible to make a living. A retired citizen we interviewed emphasized that they are forced to pay almost all of the salary they receive as rent, and the remaining money is not enough to cover rental expenses. This situation shows that retirees even struggle to meet basic food needs and cannot even go to the market.

Because a large part of their salaries goes to housing expenses, retirees experience a great economic squeeze in daily life. The citizens we spoke to expressed that the money left out of pocket after rent payments was not enough for other needs, and that they did not even have money left to go to the market. Confessions such as "We have become afraid to go to the market, we cannot pass by the stalls" reveal how deep the traces of the economic crisis are on retirees. In this process where it is even difficult to access basic necessities, the quality of life of retirees has decreased significantly.

Retirees are repeating their demands for a regulation on base salary and an increase in the minimum wage for a solution to the existing problems and expect an additional across-the-board raise from the Parliament immediately. In interviews with local tradespeople and citizens, it was stated that the decline in purchasing power negatively affects not only retirees but also general economic balances and markets are stagnant. Criticisms such as "The raise they called good news melted away before it even entered our pockets" reflect the common opinion of retirees that the increases were insufficient.

In conclusion, retirees in Osmaniye argue that the announced inflation figures and the raises made do not match real life, and that these increases have become meaningless in the face of rising living costs. The erosion of the raise rates implemented in July against increasing rents and expenses has further intensified the demand for an additional regulation. If a permanent solution is not produced against soaring rental expenses and base salaries are not improved, the livelihood distress of retirees seems inevitable to deepen further.