The leader of the Party “Action and Solidarity” Maia Sandu said the implementation of the new mechanism for calculating pensions from January 1, 2017 is a very optimistic scenario, given the complexity of the problems existing in the pension system, IPN reports.
Maia Sandu told a news conference that a pension system reformation conception was approved in August. As this wasn’t made public, the Government’s exact goal and the seriousness of this approach are not known. “As we do not know what the Government aims, we have some clear questions about the sustainability and equity of the new pension system. The problems existing in the pension system are very serious and these can lead to a new large crisis in the Republic of Moldova, with much more serious implications than those of the theft of the billion,” she stated.
The politician noted that both the Communists and the Democrats, who have been responsible for this sector during the last 15 years, preferred to avoid the system problems and made only minor interventions to sporadically increase the pensions, without pursuing a coherent policy that would ensure balance and sustainability. Thus, we witness a situation when the state social insurance fund has a deficit of over 1 billion lei a year. This money is allocated from the state budget and should be used for other purposes such as to increase the salaries or develop infrastructure. Such a deficit was reached because of the poor management of the social insurance budget, the inequities existing in the system and the aging of the population.
Maia Sandu said a cause for the lack of confidence in the pension system is the low income replacement rate, which is the lowest in the region. Thus, the persons who contributed to the social insurance fund receive only 26% of the salary that they got once, except for state officials and other categories of privileged persons for whom this rate is about 80% of the salary.
According to the politician, the old-age pension is very low because the calculation formula is defective and does not take into account the value of money in time. The pension should be determined based not on the amount of contributions, but on the consumer basket that can be acquired with this money. Preferential pensions should be given only to mothers with five and more children and to persons who work in areas with an increased risk to health, while the state officials, judges and others should get the same pension as the people working in agriculture or education.
Maia Sandu intends to run for the office of President of Moldova. Her initiative group hasn’t yet submitted the signatures in the applicant’s favor required for Maia Sandu to be registered as an election runner by the Central Election Commission.
