The Ministry of Labor, Social Protection and Family initiated public discussions on the identification of the best pension model in Moldova. By reforming the pension system, the authorities aim to calculate the pension based on data about the contributions, not on the salary certificate that not always shows the real situation. They also propose gradually eliminating the concessions on the calculation of pensions, IPN reports.

“When the person reaches retirement, it’s not right to focus on how important the post they held was. Those who cultivated wheat and those who made bread, those who looked after and educated our children are as important as those who did justice. The criteria according to which the pension is determined should be different. They are defined in the legislation regulating this issue,” Minister of Labor, Social Protection and Family Valentina Buliga said in a news conference.

The minister stated that most of the pensioners live at poverty line and seek help from the relatives in paying the bills. The blame is borne not by the people who worked their whole life. They deserve a decent pension, but the low salaries influenced the social contributions. Though the pays are now higher, there are no guarantees that all the employees will have a decent pension because of the salaries paid illegally and of the avoidance of paying social insurance contributions. The burden of providing the elderly people with pensions is carried by the honest employees.

The social insurance budget for 2014 has a deficit of 120 million lei, but the authorities assured that this will not affect the payment of pensions and their indexation.

In Moldova there are 655,400 pensioners and 805,000 tax payers.