The ratification of the reasons justifying the amended Social Security Law for the year 2026 represents a proactive reform step aimed at protecting the financial stability of the retirement system and ensuring its sustainability for future generations, without compromising the acquired rights of the participants.
The latest actuarial data clearly indicated the approach of the “first breakeven point”, the stage at which subscription revenues equal retirement obligations from the year 2030. This is a dangerous indicator in any insurance system based on current subscriptions, as it means the diminishment of the financial surplus and the accelerated pressure on reserves if no intervention is made.
Extending the breakeven point to at least 2042, with projections extending to 2054 and 2066 when adopting the average wage of the last five years, reflects a technical approach that enhances insurance equity and limits the distortions associated with wage increases in the final years of service.
Importantly, the amendments have avoided pathways that would have directly cost the citizen, such as raising subscription rates or reducing the benefit factor. Instead, the focus was on addressing a major structural imbalance: the expansion of early retirement.
When early retirement accounts for 64% of all retirees and seizes 106 million dinars out of 173 million dinars monthly from the payroll bill, we are facing a clear structural imbalance. Any retirement system where early retirement continues as a general rule, not an exception, exposes itself to long-term imbalance, because the years of disbursement become longer than the years of subscription.
Gradually raising the retirement age starting from 2028 at a rate of six months annually, reaching 65 years for males and 60 years for females over 11 years, is a gradual and balanced measure that considers the demographic reality and the rise in the expected average lifespan, and gives the market sufficient transition period to adapt.
Legally, protecting the acquired rights until the end of 2026, and calculating subsequent services according to a new formula starting from 2027 and adding them to the entitlement, consolidates the principle of stability of legal standings and confirms the non-retroactivity of effect on those who have met the conditions.
In the social dimension, raising the minimum threshold for the total retirement salary to 200 dinars is an important corrective step affecting about 20,000 retirees with low incomes, achieving a balance between financial sustainability and social justice.
Pension system reform is not populist, but proactive.
Delay accumulates cost, and early treatment reduces it.
And the decision today, however difficult it may seem, remains less costly than forced decisions in the future.
The dialogue remains open to improve technical details, but in principle, the direction is reformative and preventative, and reflects an understanding that protecting social security is not a political option, but a national responsibility related to the rights of entire generations.
