Amman- The 36-year-old worker, Maryam al-Sabarini, who suffers from cancer, did not help her to obtain early retirement, due to illness before she reached the legal age, and what increased her fear was the direction of the Social Security Administration to raise the early retirement age.
She told Al Jazeera Net, “My insurance contributions have been around 12 years, and I applied for a social security treatment to obtain an early retirement after I contracted the disease, but the transaction was rejected on the pretext that I did not meet the retirement conditions, and that being sick with cancer does not give its owner a preference for retirement.” Read also “I’m waiting for you on the patio”… A witness – a seller promising a Jordanian graduate his future during his graduation ceremony Watch .. a Jordanian young woman breaks the culture of shame and confronts the Corona crisis with the “Rushof Cart” Unemployment of female universities reached 77%.. Have working women become the weakest link in Jordan? Jordanian female workers with daily wages between the absence of government support and the specter of unemployment
Al-Sabarini shares in her suffering Youssef Al-Bazaa’a (works in a private sector institution, has been under the guarantee for 14 years), who suffers from a movement disability.
Al-Bazayah says to Al Jazeera Net, “I have been under the guarantee since 2005, after I got a job that fits my disability, and I eagerly await early retirement due to my inability to move, and during the past days, the news circulated about the insurance’s intention to increase the number of subscriptions and years of early retirement, which will deprive me of this right.”
The Social Security Law requires an arithmetic equation for early retirement, which determines that the contributor has reached the age of 55 for the male, and provides 252 actual contributions, and for the female to reach the age of 52 with 228 contributions, according to the amendments to the law for 2019.
anticipation and fear
The state of fear among the insurance subscribers, came due to an actuarial study of the World Bank, the results of which were issued a few days ago, calling for the management of the guarantee institution to raise the early retirement age, diversify the sources of financing the retirement system, reduce the incentives provided to retirees, and calculate the pension salary equation according to the years of service in full. And the return of early insurance retirees to the labor market, in order to raise the ability of the insurance institution to continue its work, according to the statements of the study author, social protection specialist at the World Bank, Montser Temerales.
Poverty line and privatization
Workers resorting to early retirement is due to several reasons, the most important of which are the privatization processes that took place during the previous years, and the restructuring of companies, which leads to the dispensation of employees who are forced to retire early. He was released after he turned 46 at the time, and receives a monthly salary of 370 dinars (520 dollars), which does not guarantee him a decent life.
Another reason is the low wages of workers below the poverty line, forcing them to retire early, then go to work in self-employment. Walid Al-Subaihi, a former teacher in the private sector, told Al-Jazeera Net, “I was working with a monthly salary of 480 dinars (670 dollars), which is not enough for me and my family, which prompted me to retire early, work in delivery of applications and private tutoring.”
According to social security statistics, 64% of the participants’ wages are less than 500 dinars (700 dollars), and this figure is below the poverty line for the standard family, and the poverty line specified for an individual in the Kingdom is 100 dinars (140 dollars), according to the Department of Statistics, which means that the majority of workers are below the poverty line. This is what prompts them to retire early in the hope of another source of income.
Workers’ representative
Member of the Board of Directors of the Warranty, the representative of the workers, the head of the Labor Union, Mazen Al-Maaytah, told Al-Jazeera Net that the meetings of the Council did not address any of these issues, whether raising the early retirement age or others, and what is being talked about are the results of an actuarial study of the World Bank on the future of the guarantee institution and its savings.
He added that the World Bank studies are not binding but are recommendations, and the Kingdom is a young society, and the early retirement age in it is currently appropriate after it has been modified several times. The basic requirement for workers is to improve the work environment, wages and job security, which makes them stick to their jobs until the age of sixty.
under consideration
The Director General of the Social Security Corporation Hazem Al-Rahahleh announced a few days ago that “raising the early retirement age is currently being studied, but as part of new amendments that do not include those who have reached the age of 40 years, and any amendment will not affect the contributors entitled to retirement, whether early or old, so there is no prejudice to the rights of any A person who satisfies the conditions for retirement, whether early or obligatory
The value of the monthly salary bill for insurance retirees, according to Al-Rahhala, amounts to 110 million dinars ($155 million), of which the salaries of early retirees constitute about 50%.
The percentage of the monthly subscription paid to the guarantee for each worker in the various establishments is about 23% of the total monthly salary, and the employee bears 7.5% of it, and the establishments pay the rest of the amount.
governmental intrusion
The economic expert, Dr. Mazen Marji, told Al Jazeera Net that the problems of the Warranty Institution “are not with early retirement, but with government borrowing from Jordanians’ money and savings in the Warranty Institution” until the institution’s debts to the government exceed 6 billion dinars ($8.46 billion) out of 11.4 billion dinars (15.9). billion dollars) at a rate of nearly 60% of savings, “which hinders the investment of these funds.”
He continues, “There are suspicions of corruption in investments in which the guarantee participated, especially in the stock market, and the purchase of real estate at higher than its real value, and the government roams about the guarantee funds by pressuring the administration to invest in losing government projects.”
The government considers the savings of Jordanians with the guarantee – according to the economist – as government funds, which it disposes of as it pleases through the boards of directors that it appoints.
Moreover, Al-Razzar’s previous government agreed with the International Monetary Fund not to count the state’s debt from the Guarantee Corporation as part of the state’s public indebtedness, bringing the debt down from 112% of the gross domestic product to 96%, according to Marji’s speech.