Meetings with civil society groups aimed at finding proposals for the sustainability of the pension system of the Ecuadorian Social Security Institute (IESS) began this month and are being held despite the delicate political moment the government is going through, which has created an Interdisciplinary Commission to prepare the reform project.

It is about the fact that the job of this commission is to submit a proposal – which is not binding and whose processing will depend on the executive power and the National Assembly – considering the urgency of the reform so that the system does not collapse. The risk of not doing so has already been warned. “It will jump in the face of President Guillermo Lasso himself in the next two years or the next government at the beginning, the problem is that the hole continues to grow and every day it is more difficult for the treasury to cover it,” says the president of this commission, Augusto de la Torre.

This week there are meetings in Quito, last week they were held in Guayaquil, and after the carnival holidays it’s Cuenca’s turn. The first were with the Social Security Study Table, editorial writers and economic analysts, with interdisciplinary groups from universities, rectors, young business women, lawyers, directories of manufacturing chambers. Almost everyone accepted, although some did not attend.

They are already making contacts to meet with labor and union leaders. “That’s how we move forward. We scheduled about five meetings this week with civil society groups: Faro, Esquel, an interdisciplinary group of academics from Udla, young activists, youth leaders”.

De la Torre assures that the meetings are very honest, open and constructive, that they have a lot to contribute and that everyone they have met so far is aware that the system needs to be fixed so that it can live for another sixty years. He describes the reception as very good.

How much can I now receive in retirement from IESS according to my age and the years of paid contributions?

At these meetings, several issues are discussed, such as whether the Ministry of Economy should continue with the transfer of fiscal funds to the pension system and how it believes that the amount of this annual contribution should be determined, so that it is fiscally sustainable and predictable. and budgetary.

Or what combination of parameter modifications would you suggest to adapt the pension system to demographic changes, i.e. population aging and life expectancy increase. The most important system parameters are:

As for the political moment, he is aware that it is super-delicate and therefore it is considered that the proposal submitted to society and the executive power may not be easily processed or it is even better not to send it to the Assembly immediately, but to discuss it for a while.

“Our job is to do the best possible job and consult, with technical support, and provide the president and society with what the commission believes should be done in order to solve the pension problem through legal reform,” he says.