The special committee set up by President Guillermo Lasso to make the IESS Pension Fund sustainable gave citizens four reasons that, according to the members of this team, Ecuadorians should support possible changes.
According to the committee coordinator, Augusto de la Torre, there is a problem of viability in the pension system, which is increasingly difficult for the IESS to pay.
Torres added that this institution has lost its credibility, and that is why – he explained – there are people who can join, but who do not want to.
He cautioned that the aim of this work is to ensure the continuity of the pension fund over time because as it is designed now, it is not sufficient to pay pensions to future retirees.
The group, set up by Lasso in January, proposes to gradually increase contribution years, with the retirement requirement in 10 years being 60 years and 35 years of contribution.
Currently, pensions here are calculated on the basis of the five best years of income in the participant’s working life, however, the new reform proposes to gradually increase this number until reaching 30 years of best wages.
Finally, the Commission’s proposal seeks to boost savings and that is why it proposes to retain the 2% contribution made by subsidiaries to the unemployment fund, but which can only be withdrawn when the person retires.
Torres confirmed that the Commission will organize more dialogues with various sectors of citizens to collect their observations and prepare the final proposal for the reform of the pension fund.
He said that the final decision on her request would remain with this government or the next.
The United Front for Workers (FUT) recently rejected the proposals, claiming they constitute a potential gambit by the government to hand over private pension funds and avoid its $1 million debt with IESS.
FUT said then that attempts to amend the social security system had not progressed in the legislature, so President Laso decided to create the aforementioned committee.
Likewise, the National Union of Educators (UNE) warned that the “famous” incentives in the proposal for people who retire later, are nothing more than pure demagoguery.
If the government seeks to provide sustainability for the social security system, which currently presents many risks, it must begin by paying the $24 million it owes to IESS, UNE claimed in a statement Wednesday.
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