Consumer Basket — Can Pensioners Afford It in Europe.

Consumer Basket is the minimum set of goods and services required to meet the basic needs of citizens. Its monetary valuation is

the living wage

(LW) — the amount of money sufficient to cover everything included in the consumer basket. It is interesting to know how the average pension in Ukraine compares to the living wage in some European countries.

The News.LIVE website explains what you need to know about the consumer basket and the average pension in Europe.

What is included in the consumer basket

It encompasses several categories of goods and services necessary for a person to maintain a basic level of life. In Ukraine, a

resolution

dated October 11, 2016, No. 780 on 'Sets of Food Products, Non-food Goods, and Services for Basic Social and Demographic Groups of the Population' was approved.

The consumer basket includes the minimum set of:

• food products (bread, cereals, vegetables, fruits, eggs, milk, meat, etc.);
• clothing items (winter clothes, shoes, underwear, socks, etc.);
• bedding (pillow, pillowcase, towels);
• essentials, sanitation, and medicines;
• goods for cultural, household, and economic purposes (dishes, home appliances, furniture, cutlery);
• housing and communal services and communications;
• household services (repairs, hairdressing, dry cleaning);
• transport services (metro trips, trains, buses);
• cultural institution services (visiting institutions and buying books).

As of 2025, the living wage in Ukraine is at the level of 2920 UAH, or about 59.76 euros. This amount is supposedly enough for covering the basic needs of a person on a monthly basis. It is clear that the actual cost of the consumer basket is significantly higher.

In the

Draft Budget Declaration

for 2026-2028, the Ukrainian government planned a gradual increase in the LW taking into account inflation. The overall figure could rise to 3171 UAH in 2026, to 3358 UAH — in 2027, and to 3536 UAH — in 2028.

Average Pensions in Ukraine and Europe

Pensioners rely on government financial support, so the funds they receive monthly should cover their basic needs and pay for the consumer basket. According to the

Pension Fund

, as of July 1, 2025, the average payment to elderly people is at the level of 6410.17 UAH (132.15 euros).

It is important to understand that a significant number of pensioners receive amounts close to the minimum indicator, near the LW. Meanwhile, in European countries, where a living wage exists, the difference between the average pension provision and the size of the LW is noticeably greater.

Real Living Wage in Ukraine

Many experts have repeatedly emphasized that the amount of LW in Ukraine is an abstract figure that has nothing in common with the real state of affairs. For instance, the head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Taxation, and Customs Policy, Danilo Hetmantsev, stated in a broadcast on

Evening.LIVE

that the situation with the living wage is not adequate.

'It is almost 3000 UAH. But you cannot live on such an amount. We have the concept of the actual living wage, which is 3.5 times higher. However, it is also impossible to live on it, as it is calculated based on an outdated consumer basket.' — the politician asserted.

He added that the budget lacks funds for a serious increase in the living wage or pensions. At the same Time, there is a need to change the approach and prioritize this issue instead of spending huge amounts on cashback programs and other secondary matters instead of direct support for the population.

'I believe that the minimum pension should be 4000 UAH today. And accordingly, if we talk about the average pension, it should be somewhere between 12,000-13,000 UAH.' — clarified Danilo Hetmantsev.

Social standards in Ukraine have not been reviewed for a long time, and amid a full-scale war, it is difficult to make such adjustments. However, solutions can be found; it only requires setting a goal to align economic indicators with the current needs of people.

What Else Ukrainians Should Know

Let us remind you that Ukraine plans to increase the

minimum wage

over 2026-2028. But the Executive Director of the Center for Economic Strategy, Gleb Vishlinsky, is confident that there will be no real increase in the amount, as the pace of inflation will accelerate.

We also wrote that the

average pension in Ukraine

rose to 6410 UAH, but considering the exchange rate of the American currency, this is only 15 dollars more. Due to inflation, a large number of pensioners still survive on minimum payments from the state.