According to a Center for Argentine Political Economy (CEPA) report, only 1 in 10 women and 3 in 10 men can retire at the official retirement age. Based on this data, the delay of the pension reform recently announced by the president, Alberto Fernández, becomes more relevant.

“We decided to extend the term of the pension reform approved in 2014, an indispensable policy to guarantee access to a pension for millions of women, until Congress approves a new law,” Fernández said after the announcement.

Through this measure, the Government extends the term for accessing the Special Regime for the Normalization of Pension Debts established by Law No. 26,970 and extended by ANSES through Resolution No. 158 of 2019, for women between the retirement age of 60 and 65 years of age.

This seeks to avoid the interruption of this regime putting at risk the maintenance allowance associated with pensions during the Congressional procedure. It is worth mentioning that this extension will be null and void in the event of a new regime for accessing social security benefits, via a Pension Debt Regularization Plan.

More than 1.5 million people at retirement age do not have the required number of paid-in contributions.

According to data published by the Anses Social Security Statistical Bulletin, 1.5 million people at retirement age do not have the 30 years of contributions required by law to retire. 906,876 of them have an insufficient number of contributions for initiating the retirement process, and 680,724 do not have any type of contributions.

CEPA analyzed the data differentiating women and men and concluded that there is a gender gap: there are 522,991 women with insufficient contributions, 46.1% of them close to retirement age, and 157,733 men, accounting for 17.67% of the total number of men close to retirement age.

This analysis shows that only 1 in 10 women, and 3 in 10 men at retirement age have more than 20 years of contributions and could eventually be able to access a pension. Furthermore, only 7 of 100 women, and 16 of 100 men have more than 25 years of contributions and would be able to retire as soon as they reach retirement age.

Critical situation for single tax system taxpayers and Households

Among contributing taxpayers and low-income taxpayers, only 5.7% and 0.6%, respectively, have more than 25 years of contributions. 98% of low-income taxpayers are women, and only 103 of them would be able to retire.

From these data it is also clear that without the 2021 reform, only 35% of people at retirement age could have retired. “From a gender perspective, 74.4% of those with pensions after the reform are women,” according to the report.

The gender gap in the work and social security spheres

According to the data analyzed, women have fewer registered contributions, i.e., their working conditions are more precarious and informal. Only 6.6% of women between 55 and 59 have between 25 and 27 years of contributions, whereas 46.1% of them have not paid any contributions into to the retirement system.

Only 16% of men between 60 and 64 have between 25 and 27 years of contributions, whereas 17.6% of them have no contributions at all.

“The ones most affected are women, who historically have higher rates of unemployment and informality than men. This is linked to the structural inequalities in the labor market that directly impact the ability of retired women to access their rights,” they point out.

Source: Perfil Noticias.