The Labor and Finance committees of the Chamber of Deputies approved yesterday – both in general and in particular – a government project that seeks to modify Law 21,419 – which creates the Universal Guaranteed Pension (PGU). The objective of the initiative is to expand the range of beneficiaries of the PGU.
“In particular, what is done is to change the way of determining the universe of 90% of the beneficiaries that today is established in the PGU, such as 90% of people over 65 years of age, and move to the traditional universe in terms of non-contributory pillar for 90% of the population,” explained the Minister of Labor. Jeannette Jara.
The change in targeting would allow the incorporation of about 70,000 beneficiaries to the PGU. Considering this, the Minister of Finance, Mario Marcel, indicated that the initiative would have an annual expenditure of the order of $ 140 billion, with a somewhat lower figure for the first year, given the incorporation, which may be more gradual, of the beneficiaries.
The Chamber of Deputies is expected to discuss the bill on Wednesday.
Explanation of the Executive
According to what the Executive stated in the aforementioned commissions, under the current calculation mechanism, which was established in Law 21,419, the threshold was restricted to define the 90% that qualifies to receive the benefit, since the population over 65 years of age is more vulnerable than the total population of the country.
In this way, people who are not part of the richest 10% of the total population of the country do not access the benefit for the parameter defined in the aforementioned law.
“This meant a change of criteria regarding the way of calculating the beneficiaries of Law 20,255 that created the Basic Solidarity Pension and the Solidarity Pension Contribution for old age, which benefited 60% of the population with lower resources in the country,” the Government said in a statement.
“Thus, for example, and according to November data from the Social Security Institute (IPS), and with the calculation criterion of the previous Solidarity Pillar, the number of PGU rejections of that month would be reduced from 46,213 to 22,027, which would have meant a decrease of more than 50%,” they added.
Controversy over PGU in women
The processing of the project in the commissions was not without discussion. And it is that in the Labor Commission, Pamela Jiles (IND) and the RNs Ximena Ossandón and Frank Sauerbaum entered an indication that women receive the PGU from the age of 60 – currently they receive it since 65.
The ruling party rejected that indication, which generated annoyance in the opposition. The aforementioned deputies indicated that they will insist on this measure in the Chamber of the Chamber.
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