Indexing social insurance payments would help raise pensions

Indexing social insurance payments from employees would be a solution to raise retirement benefits, Mefodie Varlan, department head at the National Confederation of Employers, told Info-Prim Neo. According to him, today employees make monthly payments to the state social insurance budget, but these payments do not go to any particular fund, but are personalized, being deposited on the account of every employee. “It would be normal if these payments were indexed each year, as pensions are, taking into account the growth rate of consumer prices and of the average wage. So when a person retires due to the old age, the pension would be greater, in other words, more reasonable. We are well aware that such an approach under the current economic and financial circumstances is impossible. But we could at least start with indexing these payments taking into account the rise in consumer prices”, said Varlan. At present the old-age benefits in Moldova are rather low and cannot guarantee a decent living for the elderly as most of the old persons spend all their money on medicine, Varlan pointed out. Following a 17% indexation this April, an average pension in Moldova is 475 lei, while the former agricultural employees receive 422 lei on average. The official number of recipients of retirement pensions and other social benefits stands at 620,000.