If the severe disability was caused by a general disease, the person will receive the pension based on the worked period of time. Until now the law provided the person should have a minimum insurance period even if the severe disability prevented the person from working. The Constitutional Court passed a judgement on the exception of unconstitutionality of provisions of the law on the public pension system, IPN reports.
The exception of unconstitutionality was raised by lawyer Alexandru Cebănașn in a case examined by the Centru branch of the Chisinau City Court. According to the lawyer, provisions of Article 20 of the law on the public pension system are unconstitutional because they violate the rights to an adequate standard of living and to social protection.
The Constitutional Court held that the total loss of capacity for work owing to a general disease is an aleatory event that cannot be controlled by the person with severe disability applying for a pension and the setting of a retirement age or a minimum insurance period based on which the disability pension can be provided is not justified.
According to the Court, the conditions in such a case should refer strictly to the worked period so that, regardless of the age of the person, this could benefit from a disability pension according to the made contribution. Usually, the working persons are obliged to pay contributions into the social insurance system and cannot ask the paid sums to be restored when they do not benefit from social protection for different reasons.
The Court ruled the challenged legislative solution cannot be justified by the fact that the persons with disabilities anyway benefit from other social welfare. The disability pension is juridical in nature, while the mentioned assistance is social in character and has another constitutional justification. Consequently, these are provided based on different reasons.
