A Cuban grandfather who worked for 40 years and waited eight months for his first pension received 3,727 Cuban pesos (CUP), less than eight dollars in the informal exchange, and with that money, he could only buy potatoes, sugar, rice, and coal.
The case became known through a video published on TikTok where the retiree shows his meager purchase and summarizes the situation with a phrase that condenses the outrage of millions: "This is what I was paid."
The amount that this man received is even lower than the official minimum pension currently in effect of 4,000 CUP, equivalent to approximately nine dollars, which was established after the partial increase approved by the Cuban regime in July 2025 and that came into effect in September of that year.
That adjustment benefited 79% of the 1.67 million Cuban pensioners, but it has not succeeded in stopping the brutal inflationary erosion that is consuming the purchasing power of retirees.
The prices in the informal market illustrate the magnitude of the problem: rice ranges from 300 to 800 CUP per pound, sugar between 240 and 300 CUP per pound, potatoes 450 CUP per pound, eggs 100 CUP each, and onions up to 900 CUP per kilogram. With 3,727 CUP, the purchase shown in the video nearly exhausts the entire monthly pension on just a few basic products.
The Cuban Observatory of Human Rights estimates that at least 30,000 CUP per month is needed solely for basic food, seven times more than the official minimum pension.
A Cuban recently demonstrated in a video that spends 25,000 CUP just on food for one week, and available calculations indicate that a couple needs around 40,000 CUP per month just for sustenance.
The Independent Trade Union Association of Cuba states that 99% of retirees claim their pension does not cover basic needs, and 90.7% work informally after retirement to survive. The Cuban Observatory of Human Rights adds that 79% of those over 70 years old do not have three meals a day.
Cuba has 1,774,310 registered retirees according to the National Office of Statistics and Information, and the ordeal does not end with the amount they receive. Seniors have to stand in long lines since dawn at the banks, amid blackouts and cash shortages, with only a few days each month available for them to collect their pensions.
The scenes of pushing and chaos at bank branches in Havana have been recurring in recent weeks, and some retirees have even described it as a miracle that they can simply collect their pension. In 2026, there was even a report of the death of a retiree in Cárdenas, a victim of an assault while waiting in line at the bank to collect.
The regime acknowledges the inadequacy of the system but cites budgetary constraints, while Minister Vladimir Regueiro Ale asserts that 66% of the 2026 budget is allocated to social expenditures, including over 20 billion pesos for the partial increase of pensions.
Before the adjustment in September 2025, the minimum pension was only 1,528 CUP, equivalent to about four dollars, an amount received by 40% of retirees according to the National Office of Statistics and Information itself.
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