Coming Soon, Pension Reform
As our next paychecks reflect the new deductions for the final one percent that we pay in as social security contributions, one topic that will likely show up on the talk shows soon is that of pension reform. There will be talk about whether the retirement age should be pushed further back and how the increasing number of self-employed persons can begin making social security contributions to secure their own futures. News Five touched on these issues with S.S.B. C.E.O., Deborah Ruiz.
Deborah Ruiz
Deborah Ruiz, C.E.O., Social Security Board
“We have to look at the changing demographics of how the pension payment is operating under Social Security (Board) and what would be what we refer to as parametric changes that need to happen. Whether we need to move from perhaps paying a pension at ten years to perhaps you need to have contributed for fifteen or twenty years before you are entitled to a pension. So those are the conversations in terms of pension reform – what it is that we would like and what it is that we can afford so that we have the discussion and make adjustments in terms of coverage expansion, even looking at, for the self-employed. Right now the intake on that is very low at three percent. With the COVID situation we have seen a lot of people starting to work for themselves. So that is an opportunity that I would advise those persons who have their own businesses to consider whether or not they want to contribute to social security as a self-employed person. We will be taking shortly some consultations because the current program, the feedback that we have received is that it’s a bit restrictive for them. So we want to engage with our self-employed persons to start that discussion as to how Social Security can work to design a program and expand coverage that would include both short-term and pension benefits. So we’re looking mostly at the contributory pensions, self-employed pensions, and how we can work together to design a system that works better for everybody. On our website there’s a lot of information on how you can claim and we stand ready to assist. Any questions you have, we have a live chat on our website. We also respond through Facebook Messenger, and you can reach us soon via WhatsApp, and of course we have our e-mail channels that are posted on the website: info@socialsecurity (socialsecurity.org.bz) and we have our claims e-mail to submit claims electronically. We encourage our beneficiaries, if you need further information or as a group you would like more interaction with us, we are willing to facilitate.”
