Recently, the Plenary Chamber of the Constitutional Court will extend as unconstitutional that women will have to contribute 1,300 weeks to retire and I made the decision to reduce that number to 1,000 weeks.
(See: The impacts that will fall on women’s contribution weeks).
For Laura Porras, a law professor at the Universidad de los Andes, what should happen next is that the Congress of the Republic regulates the pension issue considering the gender approach and, especially, the condition of women heads of household. For this, the Legislature will have until December 31, 2025.
In the event that Congress does not regulate, the ruling would begin to take effect as of January 1, 2026. That year 50 weeks would be reduced and from 2027 they would be reduced to 25 weeks per year. In other words, the 1,000 weeks of pension contributions for women would be reached in 2037.
It should be noted that the ruling only refers to the medium premium regime, that is, women who are in Colpensiones.
So, if the Constitutional Court has already made a decision, why should Congress act?
(See: Why calculating the fiscal cost of reforms is a ‘tough nut to crack’).
Constitutional court
PHOTO: Constitutional Court
In an interview with Portfolio, the expert Porras said that Congress would be expected to evaluate»the pension age for women because very few manage to increase the number of weeks when they reach the pension age. Raising the age gives women more time to add that number of weeks, gives them the possibility of contributing more, the pension gap between men and women would be reduced and the fiscal impact«.
And he added: «I think the Congress should rreduce the weeks to at least 1,150 weeks and include in the legislation a way to compensate women for care work, for example, for domestic work or for the number of children«.
Asked why the Court would have made the decision to lower the quoted weeks, Porras said that the high court I would be lending a hand to close the pension gap, given that «women retire less than men and the allowances they receive are much lower than men’s, it has to do with the fact that we have unstable employment trajectories because we leave jobs for care functions«.
(See: Pension for women in Colombia: the changes that would come | Briefcase).
He said that the pension reform of the Petro government would not be enough, «in fact, it is very shy to include this gender approach and, I think, the Court is asking them to be more aggressive. What is expected is that Congress will do better than the Court«.
Currently, almost four of every 10 contributors to pensions are women. According to Colpensiones, of the 6.7 million affiliates, 3.1 million are women, this is around 46%. Similarly, in private pension funds, women represent 43% of contributors, that is, close to 8.04 million.
(See: Pension reform: there was no quorum, an attempt at a first debate was lifted).
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