Pettovello announced ANSES discounts for retirees at supermarkets

The Minister of Human Capital, Sandra Pettovello, announced the launch of ANSES Benefits, a program that will offer discounts and reimbursements for retirees and pensioners in supermarket chains and stores from various sectors.

The initiative was announced during her participation in the Council of the Americas, a meeting held this Thursday at the Alvear Hotel in Recoleta with the presence of officials, political leaders, and businesspeople.

According to the official, the scheme will be implemented through agreements between ANSES, supermarkets, and business chambers, with the aim of strengthening the purchasing power of older adults. Pettovello emphasized that access to the benefit will be automatic, with no need to complete paperwork: "Reimbursements will be credited directly to beneficiaries' accounts".

The announcement came after the confirmation in the Chamber of Deputies of the presidential veto of the law that established an automatic increase in retirement benefits. In this context, the Government seeks to support consumption in a sensitive sector through market tools that avoid additional fiscal costs.

In her presentation, Pettovello put the measures in context with the social indicators from December 2023, when she took office. "At that time, poverty jumped to 52 percent and, according to INDEC and UNICEF, child poverty reached 70 percent. That is, seven out of ten children were poor", she stated. In that regard, she highlighted as a first step  the elimination of intermediaries in the delivery of social programs in order to"restore freedom and dignity to the people".

The minister stated that her department is working on three main pillars: direct assistance to vulnerable sectors, educational improvement, and the creation of quality employment. "Today, 93.5 percent of resources go directly into families' pockets", she said, and asserted that after eighteen months of management "more than eleven million people have left poverty and 2.4 million children are no longer poor, according to UNICEF".

Regarding social policy, Pettovello highlighted the 137 percent increase in the Alimentar Card and the 450 percent increase in the Universal Child Allowancebetween December 2023 and August 2025. She also mentioned the reinforcement of the Thousand Days Plan, with a 1,540 percent increase. "For the first time, the AUH plus the Alimentar Card covered one hundred percent of the basic food basket for all children under seventeen years old, since when we arrived it barely covered fifty percent and only reached children up to fourteen years old", she detailed.

In education, she highlighted the Federal Literacy Commitment agreed upon with the 24 jurisdictions and the delivery of educational vouchers to 480,000 students. She also noted that more than 700,000 young people receive Progresar scholarships.

Regarding the pension system, she indicated that in Argentina there are seven million retirements, of which four million  correspond to moratoriums, and one and a half million non-contributory pensions. At that point, she warned about suspicions of fraud and  raised the  need to promote quality jobs  through labor training policies.

She also confirmed the continuity of initiatives such as Ver para ser Libres, which provides access to eyeglasses for children through vision screenings, and the Human Capital Train, aimed at decentralizing public services.

Pettovello concluded  that the ministry's policies aim to consolidate a framework based on  "well-nourished children, strong families, quality education, modern job training, and formal employment".