“Great news for the Colombian people. Colombia is moving towards a dignified and decent old age! The
pension reform in the plenary session of the House of Representatives. For a system of protection for old age, disability and death,” highlighted in X the Ministry of Labor, which developed and promoted the initiative.This is the first of the government reforms that Congress approves in this legislature that ends on June 20, since the labor reform is still in process, the health reform collapsed in March and the education reform still has a debate to become law. .
Content of the reform
The objective of the project is maintain the retirement age at 57 for women and 62 for men, but expand the system so that everyone can benefit from resources even without having contributed enough in salaries.
The project has four pillars, the first of which will benefit two and a half million older adults who They never contributed or their money was stolen and today they are over 65 years old. The second welcomes those who contributed for a good part of their lives, but that will not be enough for them to retire. For this reason, they will receive a pension income made up of the savings they have made in the Colpensiones public fund and a subsidy of up to 30% that the Colombian State will grant them.
The third pillar is for those who contribute between 1 and 2.3 minimum monthly salaries, who will be in Colpensiones. The last one will be for those who earn more than 2.3 minimum wages, who will be guaranteed the possibility of contributing the surpluses to the private pension fund of their choice and according to their income level.
Criticism of the approval
Congressmen from different parties criticized this Friday the way in which the project was approved, since the House did not debate the content but rather voted on the same proposal that had already been accepted by the Senate. For this reason, the pension reform should not be reconciled but will go directly to presidential sanction to become law.
Representative Caterine Juvinao, of the Green Alliance party, stated: “they are forcing us to vote with a single proposal presented by the Historical Pact, by government congressmen, that the pension reform not be debated in the Chamber but that we simply vote on the text that is approved in the Senate.” “If this proposition is approved (as it happened), the debate is over. It is as if the House had debated and voted yes to everything that the Senate said and that’s it, the pension reform is now approved,” Juvinao added in a video broadcast on I live for their social networks.
Representative Christian Garcés, of the opposition Democratic Center party, wrote on his networks: “The Petrista pension reform is approved regardless of the fact that they will spend the savings from Colombians’ work as they wish and will leave young people without a pension, unless they increase the retirement age and the weeks of contributions”.
