Hungarian gov't adds benefits to the 14th month pension

The government published its decree on the thirteenth and fourteenth monthly benefits in today's Official Gazette, which is related to the fourteenth monthly pension benefit.

The first point states that,

similar to the fourteenth month pension, the government will gradually introduce the fourteenth month benefit from 2026.

The thirteenth month's benefit and the fourteenth month's benefit shall also be payable to persons receiving disability benefits, rehabilitation benefits, accident benefits or miners' health impairment benefits in the current year, if such benefits were determined from the day following the termination of their disability benefits, disability benefit, rehabilitation benefit, accident benefit or miners' health impairment benefit, which was determined from the day following the termination of the disability pension, disability benefit, rehabilitation benefit, accident benefit or miners' health impairment benefit, which was received for at least one day in the year preceding the current year.

Both the amount of the thirteenth month's benefit and the amount of the fourteenth month's benefit shall be equal to the amount of the benefit to which the beneficiary is entitled for the month of February of the current year, with the exceptions specified in paragraph (2), and paid for at least one day in the year preceding the current year, pursuant to Section 1, entitling the beneficiary to a thirteenth month's benefit and a fourteenth month's benefit.

The decree signed by Viktor Orbán will enter into force on January 1, 2026.

As established by the government and included in the law passed by parliament, the amount of the 14th month's benefit in 2026 will be 25% of the total monthly amount.

The increase due for 2026

In the same gazette, a decree was published on the increase in pensions and certain other benefits in January 2026.

Based on the provisions of Section 61 of Act LXIX of 2025 on Hungary's central budget for 2026 and

taking into account the expected annual inflation rate for 2026, the government decree stipulates a 3.6% increase.

Benefits payable under this Regulation for January 2026 shall be paid to beneficiaries at the increased rate. This regulation will enter into force on January 1.

The 14th month pension and other 14th month benefits will require a total budget expenditure of HUF 170 billion in 2026, while the January pension increase will result in an additional HUF 300 billion being spent from the budget on pensioners and other recipients of pension-type benefits.

What does the Economy Ministry say?

The Ministry of National Economy (NGM) also issued a statement in response to the recent legislative announcements. According to this statement: "We will fulfill our commitment: we will maintain the purchasing power of pensions in 2026, and the 13th month pension and the first weekly installment of the 14th month pension will arrive in February."

Next year, the government will therefore raise pensions by a further 3.6%, and in February, pensioners will receive their 13th month's pension and the first weekly installment of their 14th month's pension. All this represents a tangible step towards maintaining the standard of living of pensioners. The legislation recording the government's decisions has also been published in the Hungarian Official Gazette, according to the NGM.

The ministry points out that in order to maintain the purchasing power of pensions, the government continuously monitors inflation throughout the year, and thus, following the 3.2% pension increase in January 2025, it implemented an additional 1.6% pension increase in November. For the average old-age pensioner, this meant an extra HUF 51,000 in the last two months of the year. In addition, the government is supporting pensioners with a HUF 30,000 food voucher, which provides targeted assistance to 2.5 million elderly people. Thanks to these two measures, pensioners received approximately HUF 200 billion in additional benefits in the last months of the year.

The ministry also mentions next year's 3.6% increase, as well as the gradual introduction of a 14th month pension from 2026.

Cover photo (for illustration purposes only): Getty Images