Peruvian President Keiko Fujimori has postponed to 2027 her promise to double the Pension 65 subsidy, saying improvements will arrive progressively as public accounts allow.
Almost a month after taking office and after announcing in her first Message to the Nation that she would double the 65 Pension benefit, Fujimori softened the deadline on Wednesday during a public event.
The Peruvian President conditioned the adjustment on the evolution of public accounts and on management by the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF, in Spanish).
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“We hope that starting next year, because today we have received the country with terrible statistical figures, we will begin to see improvements,” Fujimori said, addressing the head of the Ministry.
The choice of words marked a distance from the commitment made on July 28. In her first Message to the Nation before Congress, Fujimori announced the doubling of Pensión 65 for older adults in extreme poverty.
“We will begin by doubling the amount of 65 Pension, from 350 peruvian soles (around 134 U.S. dollars) per two-month period to 700 soles (208 U.S. dollars) to eldest adults in extreme poverty,” Fujimori explained, without setting budget restrictions or execution calendars at that time.
Keiko Fujimori posterga para 2027 la mejora de Pensión 65: un mes después de anunciar que duplicaría el subsidio de S/350 a S/700 bimestrales, ahora pidió resultados al ministro de Economía y Finanzas recién para el próximo año.
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— ANP Radio (@anp_radio1928) August 26, 2026
Text reads: “Keiko Fujimori postpones to 2027 the improvement of 65 Pension : a month after announcing that she would double the subsidy from 350 peruvian soles to 700 peruvian soles bimonthly, now she asked the Minister of Economy and Finance results only for next year.”
Contradicts July pledge
The July promise did not include budget restrictions or execution schedules. The recent Fujimori’s announcement introduces a condition that was absent from the original one, tying the increase to the evolution of public accounts and to the fiscal analysis of the Ministry of Economy and Finance.
In the same speech before Congress, the Peruvian President had announced the deployment of mobile affiliation brigades in rural, Amazonian, high Andean and border areas, as part of the program’s strategy to reach eldest adults who never entered the system. The reported target of the increase is 700 soles (about 208 U.S. dollars) per two-month period, the figure circulated with the announcement of the benefit.
For the eldest recipients, each year of delay represents one less period of benefit. The President alleged that her government received the country with terrible statistical figures, a reference to the fiscal inheritance that must be managed before expanding spending.
The government has not published a formal timetable for the adjustment. The Minister of Economy now carries the responsibility of turning fiscal results into concrete improvements, while the presidential words suggest that the first results will not arrive before 2027.
The new statement came about a month after the July announcement, a short period in which the government has already adjusted one of its central social promises.
Economists Warn of Delay
The postponement drew reactions from the academic sector. Noelia Bernal, economics professor at Pacific University, warned that the delay hits a vulnerable population that has no margin to wait. The specialist pointed to a structural deficit in beneficiary identification, noting that elder adults in extreme poverty still do not appear in the program’s registry. Bernal emphasized that the feasibility and timing of any adjustment will depend exclusively on the analysis that the Ministry of Economy and Finance carries out on the global fiscal balance.
For his part, former economy Minister Alfredo Thorne attributed the executive’s caution to the fiscal inheritance received and to spending commitments derived from legislative initiatives pending resolution before the Constitutional Court. Thorne suggested that the Ministry of Economy is seeking to free fiscal space by reviewing laws approved by previous administrations before assuming new social spending commitments.
The former Minister also assured that any increase in 65 Pension must be articulated within a comprehensive reform of the pension system. He warned about the distortions that raising non-contributory subsidies in isolation would generate while demands for increases in the pensions of teachers, military personnel, police officers and affiliates are being processed.
The delay means that Peruvians in extreme poverty will have to wait until at least 2027 for the promised increase, in a context where each month of postponement represents one less period of benefit for the elderly recipients. The government, meanwhile, has not published a formal timetable for the adjustment, leaving the promise subject to fiscal results and to the Ministry of Economy and Finance’s analysis.
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