“Too long”: 14 EU countries denounce slow pension payment for people who moved across borders
The Czech Republic and a group of EU countries have called for faster pension processing for people who moved within the European Union, as some member states take “more than a year” to calculate the due amount and release payments.
At a meeting of employment and social affairs ministers on 16 July, representatives of EU countries said that too many pensioners end up in “precarious situations” due to the lengthy administrative procedure.
While EU rules allow to aggregate contributions across countries, a note discussed at the meeting says “hundreds and thousands of new pensioners are still waiting many months for their pensions to be calculated, which are made up of several partial pensions from the member states where they worked and contributed … during their working lives”.
“However,” the document adds, “it is seniors and pensioners receiving old-age, invalidity or survivors’ pensions who are among the most vulnerable social groups in the EU, as they are usually dependent on pension income in their old age.”
“If we promote and support the free movement of workers, we must also ensure that their legitimate social protection in retirement is always in place and on time,” the document says.
The information note was put forward by the Czech Republic and backed by Belgium, Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Latvia, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. At the meeting, Luxembourg, Portugal and Croatia offered their support too.
EU pension coordination
EU law allows people who move around the countries of the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland to contribute into one social security system at the time and to aggregate contributions paid into different systems when retiring. Those arrangements remain in place for the UK after Brexit.
Each country makes its own rules on the number of years required for state pensions, the criteria for entitlement and the rate at which pensions are paid out.
For people who moved across borders, time spent in another EU state can be used to make up the qualifying years. At retirement age, only one pension application is necessary in the country where the person lives or last worked. The amount paid out is based on each country’s contributions on a pro-rata basis.
Free movement essentials
At the Employment and Social Affairs Council meeting of 16 July, Czech Minister for labour and social affairs Marian Jurečka said that information exchanges among member states and the calculation of retirement benefits for people who have moved across the EU should be faster.
“This concerns approximately 6 million people who have worked in more than one EU country. That is quite a lot, and it is clear that the number of such people is going to increase and there will be more and more data to process in order to establish the retirement benefits of these people, so it is important to focus on these issues more than we have done so far,” minister Jurečka argued.
He called on the European Commission to monitor how quickly countries process files as “sometimes it takes more than 12 months to define the amount of pension to be granted”.
Romanian Minister for labour and social solidarity Simona Bucura-Oprescu said more than three million Romanians work in other EU member states relying on free movement and social security rules. She noted that the biggest communities are in Italy and Spain, where retirees face long waiting times.
“Given that we speak mostly of older people, it is important that their social security rights be recognised very, very rapidly,” she said.
Latvia’s Minister for welfare Uldis Augulis said that Latvian pensioners also “encounter problems” when they have to wait for a response from other EU countries. He also urged the Commission to consider information campaigns about pension issues for cross-border workers.
Dutch Deputy Permanent Representative Michael Stibbe called for an evaluation of existing rules on cross-border social security, given their “increasing quantity and complexity”.
Organisational changes
The joint document urged EU countries to “take full advantage” of the Electronic Exchange of Social Security Information (EESSI), the IT system that helps national administrations to share information.
EU Employment and Social Affairs Commissioner Nicolas Schmit said that since 2019 the EESSI has handled more than 24 million cases. The system is “fully implemented in 17 member states and beyond 90% in the remaining 15 countries, and full implementation in all member states is expected by mid 2025,” the Commissioner added.
Last September the Commission proposed to further digitalise systems to simplify access to social security services across borders.
Ministers also called on the Commission and the future EU Council presidencies to make this a regular item in the Employment and Social Affairs Council meetings.
Claudia Delpero, Europe Street News © all rights reserved
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