Parliament confirms 13th pension payment to be paid once a year in December

The 13th old-age pension payment will be paid out as planned from December 2026, the Swiss Senate confirmed on Wednesday. +Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox On March 3, 58.2% of Swiss voters backed the left-wing “Better living in retirement” initiative, which proposes an additional monthly pension payment to help pensioners struggling to make ends meet. + Swiss vote: ‘yes’ to higher pensions, ‘no’ to retiring later The initiative will come into force in 2026. It will cost around CHF4.2 billion ($4.7 billion) a year. Value-added tax (VAT) is to be increased by 0.7 percentage points in Switzerland to finance the 13th monthly pension payment. + Swiss VAT to rise by 0.7 points to finance 13th pension payment The additional money will be paid to everyone entitled to an old-age state pension. The supplement will have no impact on the amount of monthly old-age pensions, and will not be taken into account in the calculation of income qualifying for supplementary ...