Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced on Wednesday that he has eliminated the retirement age requirement for more than 2 million workers, Reuters reported.
The new arrangement will apply to people who began working before September 1999, have completed 20-25 years of social security registered working life and were previously required to retire at the age of 58 for women or 60 for men.
Erdoğan stated that 2.25 million people are now eligible for immediate retirement.
This policy change allows these individuals to retire immediately, just six months before an election. There are currently 13.9 million pensioners in Turkey.
The move is seen by many as an attempt to boost Erdoğan’s popularity ahead of the upcoming election in June and has been praised by labor groups who have been protesting the minimum age requirement for retirement in favor of requiring workers to complete a mandatory number of work days before retiring.
Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) also recently increased the minimum wage as part of an effort to regain support among voters who have been impacted by inflation, currency depreciation and declining living standards. It is not yet clear how much the new retirement system will cost.