A report by Diario de Cuba gathered heartbreaking testimonies from Cuban retirees who described a common reality: their pension lasts them no more than a week. "That money, when it comes into my hands, after five, six, seven, eight days, it’s gone," recounts one of the interviewees.
The scene is repeated in the streets of the island. Elderly individuals wander about, begging for alms or collecting recyclable materials to survive. "I see them out there on the street, wandering, begging for alms, doing things that you can imagine they have to do, because otherwise, they wouldn’t make it," described another witness in the report.
The gap between what people receive and the cost of living is staggering. A croquette costs 150 pesos, a loaf of bread 140 pesos, and going out with 2,000 pesos doesn't get you far at all. "You go out with two thousand pesos now and come back with nothing," says one of the retirees. "Who can live on that? Look, it’s just not possible."
The Cuban regime approved Resolution 14/2025 in August 2025, which raised the minimum pension to 4,000 pesos for those earning less than that limit, benefiting around 430,000 pensioners. However, the increase was quickly consumed by inflation and the devaluation of the peso.
In September 2025, those 4,000 pesos were worth less than 10 dollars on the informal market, and by the end of that year, they had fallen to about seven dollars, representing a nearly 30% loss in purchasing power in just four months.
The official food inflation reached 16.65% year-on-year in March 2026, while independent economists estimate that the real inflation was around 70% in 2025.
The basic basket in Havana is estimated at 12,000 pesos per person per month, three times the adjusted minimum pension. A survey conducted in 2025 by the Independent Trade Union Association of Cuba with 506 retirees in five provinces revealed that 99% claim that their pension does not cover basic needs for food, housing, and medications.
90.7% of surveyed retirees continue to work after retirement, predominantly in the informal economy, and 97.8% seek additional income to survive. Previously, 39% of Cuban retirees survived on minimal pensions of 1,528 pesos per month, a figure that was already deemed insufficient at that time.
The collapse of the healthcare system exacerbates the situation even further. A retiree mentioned in the report that the medication Prevenor, which used to cost six pesos at the pharmacy, is now nearly impossible to find and its price has skyrocketed. Inflation and the soaring dollar are sinking pensions with each passing month.
The retirees themselves are asking the State for support that never arrives. "There should be a slightly more flexible approach with elderly people. More flexible because we can barely afford to buy anything," said one of the interviewees. Another added, "I live right there, and no one ever comes to check how I live."
The situation is not new. In March 2024, an elderly man fainted while waiting in line to collect his pension in Santiago de Cuba, a victim of hypoglycemia under the sun, in an image that encapsulated the extreme precariousness faced by seniors on the island.
We lack attention and care, both of them, concluded one of the retirees interviewed by Diario de Cuba, in a phrase that summarizes the systematic neglect to which the regime subjects those who dedicated their entire lives to working on the island.
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