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The living alone supplement is estimated to cost 8.1 million euros in 2017.

The bill would introduce an additional support payable once a year to old age pensioners who live alone according to population register and whose monthly net pension in the second and third quarter is below the double of the calculated subsistence minimum based on the previous year's statistics, the explanatory note to the bill says.

The living alone allowance would be awarded by the Social Insurance Board and paid out in October of every calendar year. The planned size of the support in 2017 is 115 euros.

The Ministry of Social Affairs said the aim of the support scheme is to improve the financial position of pensioners and reduce the risk of poverty. Surveys have shown a relatively big inequality between the incomes of old age pension recipients and other population groups, and a significantly higher rate of relative poverty among old age pensioners living alone than in other groups of pensioners, it said.

Given that the double of the subsistence minimum forecast for this year is 416 euros, the proposed supplement would concern around 86,300 out of 103,700 lone pensioners, the ministry said. However, it expects the actual number of recipients to be somewhat smaller as an application has to be filed with the Social Insurance Board when first seeking support. The ministry estimates that the share of applicants in 2017 will not exceed 80% or approximately 69,040 people, making for an outlay of 7.9 million euros to which some other expenses such as the board's labor costs will be added.

It is planned for the law to step into effect on Jan. 1, 2017.