The parliamentary group of the Party of Action and Solidarity presented a bill that modified the public pension system and introduces a pension for long career. It also restores the retirement conditions used before 2020 and revises the indexation formula, IPN reports.
“The mission of responsible politicians is to take calculated, assumed decisions that would bring added value to the citizens in the short and long runs, based on objective conditions,” Dan Perciun, who heads the Parliament’s commission on social protection, health and family, stated in a press briefing.
The MP noted that PAS returned to the bill that was adopted by the PSRM – Șor majority on December 16, 2020, when the reform that referred to the retirement age was thwarted. That bill was adopted without the Government’s appraisal and it is therefore unconstitutional. In 2014, the ratio of pensioners to employees was 1: 1.38, but now is 1:1.23 and is drawing closer to 1:1. The transfers from the state budget to the social insurance budget continue growing. The pension fund is not sustainable as it does not finance itself with citizens’ contributions,” stated Dan Perciun.
The cost of the bill adopted by PSRM – Șor is of 1.5 billion lei a year, coming to over 6 billion lei for the next four years. This is a big problem when the number of employees against the number of pensioners decreases and the social insurance budget is in deficit. The people older than 60 represent 21.3% of the population, while 14% of the citizens are older than 65. “The Center for Demographic Research estimated that the number of those who are older than 60 will rise to 32.3% during the next 20 years. Practically each third Moldovan will be older than 60. The number of those aged 65 and up will increase to 24.4% and almost each fourth citizen will be older than 65,” explained Dan Perciun.
He noted that the gradual rise in the retirement age to 63 for women and men matches the global and regional trends and all the developed countries face similar problems. The PAS’ bill enables yet the persons with an appropriate insurance period to retire, regardless of age. A long career pension is introduced and this will benefit those whose insurance period is longer – by three years longer than the standard period for women and by five years longer than the standard period for men. Regardless of age, the persons will be able to retire and will benefit from pension in full amount.
PAS also suggested reviewing the pension indexation formula. The indexation will occur once a year, in April, based on the inflation for the last year. There will be yet a real coefficient for increasing the pension by 50%, based on the economic growth for the previous year, which will include the calculated pension. “The rise will represent a fixed amount, not a percentage of the pension of each person so that everyone is treated equally,” said Dan Perciun.
