Moldovan labour ministry reacts to pensioners union's statements on pension system reform

Chisinau, 15 December /MOLDPRES/ - The Labour, Social Protection and Family Ministry (MMPSF) today made specifications on the pension system reform, thus reacting to statements by representatives of the Pensioners’ Union of Moldova, made at a news conference on 14 December.    

According to the MMPSF press service, the new formula of pensions’ calculation “is meant to ensure interdependence between the contributions to social insurances and the size of the pension, but does not oblige pensioners to get employed, just as representatives of the Pensioners Union put it. The persons who reached the retirement age can work voluntarily and will benefit both from monthly salary and pension. Also, the present formula of calculating the age limit pension does not allow ensuring proper incomes for Moldovan pensioners; for this reason, the average pension is presently under the subsistence minimum needed for a pension beneficiary.”    

At the same time, the ministry said that the financial sources for indexing the pensions are provided for in the social insurances budget. The overall spending of the state social insurances for 2017 will rise by 9.6 per cent against the sum approved for this year. Thus, starting from 1 April 2017, the pensions might be increased.  

“The representatives of the Pensioners Union understood incorrectly the pensions’ valuing. All pensions established till 1 January 1999 were subjected to recalculation in 2001-2002, according to the amendments and completions made to the law on state social insurances pensions. The working group for elaborating the concept of pension system reform was set up in last May. The Pensioners Union made no request to participate in the consultations,” the press release by MMPSF also reads.     

On 14 December, the Pensioners Union made public a statement, addressed to the presidency, parliament and government, in which it expressed disagreement with the pension system reform. The Union reasoned that the authorities would have approved the pension system reform stealthily, without subjecting it to public consultations and ignoring the proposals by experts and trade unions.    

(Reporter P. Beregoi, editor M. Jantovan)