Government rejects decision draft stipulating revising allowances for working pensioners

The Government rejected, on Wednesday meeting, May 31, the amending draft of the Law on social state insurance pensions. The initiative stipulated revising the pension amount for working pensioners, taking into account the period of working after retirement, under the clause that along this period the social insurance quota was fully paid. Previously, the chairman of the Parliamentary Commission on social, health and family protection, Valentina Buliga, disapproved this draft. According to her, the insurance system can provide to beneficiaries a decent pension only when the relation between the number of contributors in the pension system and that of pensioners is of 4 to 1 or 5 to 1. At the moment of approving the new pensions system, this proportion was of 1.8 to 1, and now these levels got equal. At the same time, in order to implement the provisions proposed in the draft it is necessary to increase the costs of the State Social Insurance Budget, and the Constitution of Moldova stipulates that public costs can be approved only by establishing the source of financing. The deputy also considers that the proposed changes run contrary to provisions of the Pension Reform Strategy, stipulating that preserving the real quota of pensions have to be made through their indexation. Starting 1 April 2003, a new annual pension indexation method is applied, taking into account the average inflation rate, as well as the increase of the average salary on the country. This draft was submitted to the Ministry of Health and Social Protection to be improved and complied with the legislation in force.