Those who have less than 10 years left to retire (47-year-old women and 52-year-old men) and have not been able to move from private funds to Colpensiones or vice versa would benefit from the pension reform that the Government will file before Congress next Wednesday.

The draft presented by Ministry of Labor it opens the door to the so-called express transfers of affiliates, an initiative that on previous occasions was tried to carry out without success in Congress.

(You can also read: Pension reform: 9 out of 10 contributors, forced to be in Colpensiones)

What is being proposed on this occasion is that all persons who, upon the entry into force of the law, have 1,000 weeks they would enter into a transition regime and they would not be affected by the changes proposed by the reform.

In addition, all these people will have 2 years to change the regime, before double counseling. In this way, the workers who are not given the accounts today could go from Porvenir, Colfondos, Protección and Skandia to Colpensiones or vice versa.

Subsidies for high pensions would be eliminated

The rest of the workers would be obliged to enter the new pillar system, in which Colpensiones would receive the contributions of all people up to the first 3 minimum wages and private funds, the contributions that exceed this value. These two benefits would come together to add a single old-age pension.

This means that the reform would eliminate the subsidies for high pensions that Colpensiones manages todaysince the maximum pension that would be paid in the public system would be 3 minimum wages.

Although the Anif economic studies center states that the ceiling was reduced to 3 minimum wages, it considers that it is still very high, since almost 87 percent of the population today earns less than 3 minimum wages.

“In some way, the capacity for private savings is expanding and that is an important issue, because Colombia is a country with low levels of savings to begin with, and in a scenario like the one being considered in the reform, that It will continue to deepen,» he said. Anwar Rodríguez, vice president of Anif.

greater contributions

The draft of the reform also establishes that the contribution discounted to workers of 4 minimum wages by the pension solidarity fund would rise from the current 1 percent to 2 percent.

In addition, it is established that pensioners who earn an allowance of between 10 and 20 minimum wages will contribute 2 percent to the solidarity fundand those who have more than 20 minimum wages will contribute 3 percent.

The project also indicates that people who will have an income greater than 16 minimum wages, close to the full salary by 2023, will have to make an additional contribution.

This would be 0.2 percent for those people who earn between 16 and 17 minimum wages; 0.3 percent for those between 17 and 18; 0.6 percent for those who receive between 18 and 19; 0.8 percent for those aged 19 and 20, and 1 percent for those over 20.

Asofondos analyzes the project

Asofondos, a union that brings together Porvenir, Protección, Colfondos and Skandia, is reviewing in detail the draft of the pension reform bill, which was presented at the negotiation table at the Ministry of Labor. According to Daniel Wills, their vice president, they are rigorously reviewing each item. “We want to calculate the effects that the proposal presented could have,” he said.

One of the complaints in the discussion has been that the union has not been able to participate in the debate beyond appearing on occasion, as guests.

* Porvenir, pension fund administrator (AFP), is part of the business group to which Casa Editorial EL TIEMPO belongs.