The Ministry of Labour has asked the government to reject the opposition draft constitutional bill on the protection of old age pensions.
In reaction to the government's draft amendment to the social insurance law, the SDKÚ party submitted a constitutional bill it drafted to protect the second, or capitalisation, pillar in the pension scheme from changes to the detriment of the savers. The constitutional bill would protect the two-pillar character of the pension system and guarantee that the pension system consists of pension insurance and pension savings.
In its statement on the draft, the ministry wrote that it feared the bill would reduce the flexibility of the pension system as a whole.
The changes would pose an obstacle to raising the retirement age or decreasing the tax burden in the future. The ministry said it is highly probable that Slovakia will have to raise the retirement age in the medium term, like other economically developed countries have.
If the bill is approved, the changes could be interpreted as a handicap for savers in the long run, and thus a violation of the law, the ministry wrote.
-SITA
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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