The Director General of Social Security, Mohammad Karki, announced in an interview with Lebanon Radio that the lifetime pension project is nearing completion and will benefit a large segment of insured individuals. The project aims to alleviate the burdens of the economic crisis as the national currency deteriorates, causing compensation values to diminish completely. Since February of this year, efforts have been made within the framework of social security to approve this system, which replaces end-of-service compensation with a lifelong pension. Support from the International Labour Organization has been sought to conduct actuarial studies and benefit from external expertise in this field.
Karki expressed optimism that "this project will be completed soon. We are awaiting a final invitation from Minister of Labour Mustafa Bayram for both employers and workers, and upon approval, it will be raised to the Board of Directors of Social Security, which will certainly endorse it, followed by Bayram’s ratification. It will require a decree from the Cabinet to increase contributions to ensure the necessary funding, and once this decree is issued, we will start implementing it in the following month."
He noted that "the benefits provided by this project will be three times better than the current compensation, and this option will not be mandatory but available to everyone aged 60-64 who has served for 20 years, and we will attempt to reduce it to 15 years. We hope relevant authorities will expedite its approval since insured individuals are aware that their compensations have evaporated, making it difficult even to obtain their compensation in one lump sum from the bank."
Karki added, "There is a strong interest in ensuring that the insured receives a lifelong pension, which can be transferred to a partner, whether a wife or husband, and to children. The most important aspect of this project is the increase that will occur in the average salaries and wages reported to social security, meaning there will be periodic and at least annual increases for pensions."
He continued, "We have allowed, as a settlement, those who have received their compensations since 1-1-2022 the option to return them and benefit from this project, as this group has been the hardest hit by the collapse of the national currency. Furthermore, anyone eligible for compensation will benefit from its provisions."
On another note, Karki discussed increases in family allowances and the costs of medication and healthcare, which we also seek to address. We will pay attention to the issue of medicines, especially chronic ones, and explore ways to support them to alleviate the significant burden on patients," hoping for "an imminent breakthrough that will positively impact all levels, particularly social security."
