“Without any penalty! It is a novelty in the law”

There have been discussions about early retirement without penalty recently, with the new pension law that will enter into force on September 1, 2024.

According to her, one of the categories that will be able to retire earlier is represented by Romanians who worked in exceptional or special working conditions, as follows:

• for each year worked in special working conditions, four months are added to the contribution period
• for a year worked under special working conditions, six months are added to the contribution period

The Minister of Labor, Simona Bucura Oprescu, spoke about Romanians who can retire early.

“Absolutely all pension files, regardless of the law on which it was issued, will be recalculated for all of them. Regardless of the law on which it was issued, the provisions of Law 360 will be applied and the calculation formula will be applied.

It is important to know that benefits are not awarded to benefits. Stability points are only earned for contributory periods.

If you had four months a year of special conditions, you will benefit from them, if the job was assigned differently and if the employer paid. If he did not pay, the situation is interpretable.

But both for special conditions and special ones, we retained the benefits”, explained Simona Bucura Oprescu.

Romanians who can retire at 60

However, there is still a category of Romanians who can retire early, without being penalized.

According to the Minister of Labor, we are talking about men who can retire at 60, if they have a contribution period of 40 years.

“Years under 25 are not years that bring additional points.

At the moment, in the pension law we have a minimum period of 15 years, a full contribution period of 35 years and we also have another novelty in the law, those who have a contribution period of 40 years can retire after the new law, without any penalty, i.e. if you are a man, you started at 20, the maximum retirement age is 65, you can retire at 60 without any penalty.

It is very important for retirees to know this, especially retirees, to plan their career and life according to this”, stated Simona Bucura Oprescu in the Romania Politica show from Prima News.

Romanians who will receive more money

The Minister of Labor also explained who are the Romanians for whom incomes will increase more.

“I would like to shade. We must take into account the fact that each pensioner’s pension file is unique. And that the new law on pensions in the public system provides for a formula that has two parameters. Total accumulated points, which is made up of total contributory points, total non-contributory points and stability points.

Contributory points are represented by all income bearing social security contributions. Points for assimilated periods refer to periods of study for which 0.25 points per year are given, plus periods of military service, respectively, if applicable, probably in the case of the few pensioners, of imprisonment or political detention, and stability points are points through which, in addition to contributions, we reward work and remaining active so that pensioners with a longer contribution period will have a better pension.

This difference can be seen especially in the case of those who are on the minimum social allowance, because today in Romania we have approximately 1,200,000 pensioners out of the 4,700,000 pensioners who are on the minimum social allowance.

They have already benefited from an increase due to the increase from January 1 by 13.8% from 1,125 lei to 1,281 lei. Well, in the case of those on the minimum social allowance, who have contribution periods over 25 years, thanks to the stability points, they will no longer all be otova, as in a bag, at the same level, and those who have worked for for example, 35-38 years old on the minimum wage in the economy, will no longer receive the same income as the pensioner who has worked for 15 years, the minimum contribution period, has an old-age pension and who also receives the minimum social allowance.

Thanks to the stability points, those who worked harder will receive more”, explained Simona Bucura Oprescu at Realitatea PLUS.