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One of the principles of pension reform approved on the night of June 14 is the gender and diversity approach to guarantee the right to social protection to different populations, including the women. In that sense, several articles were defined to fulfill that purpose.
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Article 3 defines that Women beneficiaries of the basic income of the solidarity pillar will have to be 60 years old, or over 50 years old (unlike men, who must be five years older), and have a loss of work capacity equal to or greater than 50%, and meet the other requirements of the pillar. Another difference compared to men is that in the subsidy directed to beneficiaries in the semi-contributory pillar it will be 30% for women, while for them it corresponds to 20%.
But in the most relevant changes for women with the reform is that the number of minimum weeks of contributions what is required of them to obtain the pension will change from 1,300 to 1,000 weeksfor which will decrease by 25 weeks each year until reaching the goal of 1,000 in 2036.
Decrease in weeks of contributions for women
* 25 weeks are reduced each year.
2025: 1,275 weeks
2026: 1,250 weeks
2027: 1,225 weeks
2028: 1,200 weeks
2029: 1,175 weeks
2030: 1,150 weeks
2031: 1,125 weeks
2032: 1,100 weeks
2033: 1,075 weeks
2034: 1,050 weeks
2035: 1,025 weeks
2036: 1,000 weeks
In addition to this, article 36 establishes the benefit of reduction of weeks for women with children. This states that, “in recognition of unpaid work, as of the entry into force of this law, for women who meet the minimum age to access the pension and do not have the weeks established in the average premium component of the contributory pillar, will be able to obtain the benefit of reduce the number of weeks required by fifty weeks for each child, until reaching a minimum of 850 weeks for a maximum of three children.
But they warn that this benefit cannot be used for additional increases to the minimum required weeks, in order to increase the replacement rate.
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José Ignacio López, president of Anif, views these bonuses for children favorably, as he points out that part of the employment discrimination against women is linked to interruptions associated with motherhood, “it is a convenient idea, but the reduction was too abrupt , because there has been talk of up to 850 weeks of contributions and it must be said that this is quite expensive for the country. Therefore we hope that this additional reduction of weeks will not be approved in the House. “I hope the child pension bonus is adopted without exceeding the limit of 1,000 weeks,” Lopez indicated.
Finally, for The transition regime is also different for women and men. For men, those who remain in the current regime or the new law applies to them will be defined according to whether or not they have 900 weeks of contributions.
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While, women who have 750 weeks of contributions by the date on which the Comprehensive Social Protection System for Old Age comes into effect of the reform, on July 1, 2025, Law 100 of 1993 will continue to apply to them and the rules that modify, repeal or replace it, and those who have fewer weeks of contributions by that date, will apply what has been filed and approved of the pension reform, at the end of the debates in the House of Representatives.
With these same weeks of contributions, women who are less than 10 years away from reaching pension age will have two years from the enactment of the law to change their respective regime, after double advice.
Disability and disability cases
In chapter VII, which talks about special benefits, there is one that applies both for working mothers and fathers with a son or daughter with a permanent physical or cognitive disability of 50% or more.
But article 89 that talks about early disability pension, Those who suffer from a physical, mental or sensory deficiency of 50% or more, who turn 50 years of age in the case of women, will be beneficiaries of it, while for men it will be when they are 55 years of age.
