One of the novelties of the guarantee bill rights of people with disabilities is early retirement due to premature aging. Workers who meet the requirements will be able to leave their working life until five years before the ordinary age (at age 60). The draft law – later a regulatory development will be required – indicates two cases: people with a degree of disability equal to or greater than 45% (severe) who present “specific disabilities or associated pathologies” that may result in this premature aging and people with disability equal to or greater than 60% (very serious). The economic report makes a projection regarding the cost of this advanced retirement according to the number of people between the ages of 55 and 64 who would now meet the requirements regarding the degree of impairment and who, therefore, counting on an agile application of the regulations, could retire early in the next five years. There are 23: 12 with one serious and 11 with one very serious.
Six people could access it immediately and the cost would be around 80,000 euros
Despite the advanced retirement, what the bill includes is that these workers they will not see the pension amount reduced even if they retire earlierwho will perceive the same as if they did it at ordinary age. The financing, the bill states, is borne by the Andorran social security system. And the estimate of the economic impact of the measure differentiates between people who, by age, could take advantage of it immediately and those who would do so within five years. Of the group that is at a degree of disability of 45 percent or higher, three people are between the ages of 60 and 64 and would potentially be beneficiaries once the new early retirement is approved. It is estimated that the annual cost would be around 20,000 euros (specifically, 19,933, 6,644 per person).
Keeping the disability supplement is 140,000 euros
The other nine people who could be accommodated are between 55 and 59 years old and could leave working life within five years. After this period, the indicative economic cost would be 126,050 euros in annual terms, around 14,000 per person. In this case the scenario is progressive because, by age, not all beneficiaries could take advantage of the measure immediately: it is calculated that in the approximate term of one year there would be three beneficiaries, in two years two more would be added, in three another two people and, in four, the remaining two.
In the case of workers with a very severe disability (greater than 60%), there are also three people who could immediate access to early retirement. In this case, the annual economic impact would rise to 57,063 euros per year, around 19,000 per person. The other eight, aged between 55 and 59, could receive it in stages over a period of five years and, at the end of the period, the economic impact of the early retirement of all eight would be 84,508 euros.
From disability to old age
Another of the changes included in the bill now in the parliamentary procedure is the deletion of the automatic passage of disability pension due to illness or work accident to old-age pension at age 60by noting that it meant the loss of economic capacity for some people; they lost the disability supplement and did not meet the requirements to access a solidarity pension. In this case, the economic estimate of the measure is based on the 54 people between the ages of 55 and 59 who receive a disability pension, of which twenty-three are beneficiaries of a contributory supplement that they would no longer lose. The total cost of this is 140,000 euros, 6,000 per person.
The bill also incorporates a transitional provision to protect the group that could be excluded from the improvement, having passed from disability to old age before the entry into force of the bill and not having access to a solidarity benefit by not meeting the requirements. An indicative calculation is made that would mean between 500 and 800 euros per month per person. On the other hand, the supplement associated with people who retire early due to premature aging would benefit three people with a degree of disability equal to or greater than 45% and the supplement they would receive would be, as a whole, 35,000 euros per year.
NATIONAL PREVENTION PLAN
The bill also affects prevention, and for this reason forces the Government to approve and periodically update a National Prevention Plan of the situations that can generate disabilities. Specifically, the Plan will have to include areas such as prenatal and pediatric care, vaccinations, occupational and road safety, public health, accident prevention, healthy habits and enhanced care for vulnerable groups, such as the elderly. The Government may appoint experts in disability prevention policies to collaborate in this work.
