As promised, I am examining age pensions in each of Mexico’s 32 states. The Distrito Federal (Mexico City) is one of the 32, because it is a state in everything but name, with an elected executive and legislature.
Two of the state governments provide universal pensions (Mexico City from age 68 and Chiapas from age 64) . I recently reported on both schemes, so will not include them in this forthcoming series of posts.
Fifteen states offered means-tested pensions to elderly residents in 2011. I will report on each scheme, paying particular attention to changes made following the 2012 extension of federal pensions (the 70+ programme) to urban communities.
The remaining fifteen states in 2011 reported no social pensions for the aged, other than those provided by the federal government:
Aguascalientes
Baja California Sur
Campeche
Coahuila
Colima
Guanajuato
Hidalgo
Mexico State
Michoacán
Morelos
Nayarit
Puebla
Queretaro
San Luis Potosi
Tamaulipas
Governments in each of these 15 states claim to be helping elderly residents. The state and municipal governments provide the elderly with some health care, occasional meals, access to recreational and social centres, homeless shelters, etc. What they fail to provide is regular cash benefits, even for those in need. I will report on a state in this group only if its policies have changed, only if the state government provides a social pension for at least some of its elderly.
I will examine each state in alphabetical order, searching for government documents and news reports on the internet. In Aguascalientes, first on the list, there has been no change. The government still fails to provide cash pensions to its elderly population.
In contrast, there have been major changes in benefits and rules for social pensions in Baja California (adjacent to Baja California Sur), which is next on the full list of states. A brief report, “Social Pensions in Baja California (Mexico)”, follows.
