The International Labor Organization (ILO) said it is necessary to reform Colombia’s general pension system to respond to the system’s structural challenges, including competition and inequality between its two subsystems: Media Premium Regime (RPM) and Savings Regime. Individual with Solidarity (RAIS) and the necessary financing to maintain the minimum pension.
This is evidenced by the recommendations of a comparative study of the Analysis of National Law and Practice against Convention No. 102, conducted by the ILO, which sets minimum criteria for social security schemes.
The study presented by ILO experts from Switzerland to the Subcommittee on Pension Reform indicates that the reform should take into account the constitutional principles of efficiency, universality, adequacy and responsibility of the state in coordinating and directing social security.
The reference points were the minimum standards for social protection, the definition of the contingency, persons protected, type and amount of benefits, conditions for entitlement to benefits, including the qualifying period and duration of the benefit and the waiting period. Likewise, the unforeseen circumstances, access conditions, minimum coverage, the duration of the benefit and the minimum features.
The ILO said it was available to support the government and social partners in formulating reform options appropriate to the national context, based on comparative practice of systems compatible with international social security standards.
The ILO official, Maya Stern-Plaza Logal, pointed out: “We have focused our attention on old-age pension systems, and preliminary input shows that there are still compatibility issues between the pension regime, both medium-contribution and the RAIS, which will require some structural changes to ensure that the supply is adequate”.
It emphasizes that in practice two of the three pension modalities currently available to members of RAIS (scheduled exit and scheduled exit without pension bonus negotiations) do not comply with the principles of periodic adjustment and predictability of benefits – except in the case of pensions the amount of which is equal to the minimum wage, it is recommended that the design of the General Pension Scheme be reviewed to ensure, both in law and in practice, that all protected persons, regardless of the type of pension chosen and the amount of the pension granted, are entitled on a predictable benefit and on retaining the purchasing power of their pension.
It recommends introducing mechanisms to ensure that all protected persons who have paid contributions for at least 15 years on reaching retirement age and who do not meet the conditions for entitlement to a pension (1,300 weeks of contributions in the RPM or 1,150 weeks in the RAIS), they receive a reduced periodic benefit for life, instead of a one-off capital payment (replacement compensation in the RPM or repayment of credits in the RAIS).
It is proposed to put in place mechanisms to enable the management institutions to guarantee that the protected persons will make reasonable use of the compensation in case of permanent partial disability provided by the SGRL in case of loss of partial capacity above a certain level.
“The provisions of national legislation that make the recognition of the survivor’s pension conditional on the completion of a minimum period of cohabitation of at least five years immediately preceding the death of the pensioner (and member according to case law) should be reviewed so that the minimum duration cohabitation is not required if the calamity is work-related,” the analysis indicates.
It is recommended that the provisions governing the economic transfer of unemployment from the MPC be reviewed in light of the minimum requirements of the agreement that this benefit does not implement. That is, the provisions regarding the scope (coverage), the amount and duration of the benefits, as well as the grounds for suspension and the general responsibility of the state for providing benefits.
Source: El heraldo
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