The new pension law stipulates that the minimum contribution period will increase according to the evolution of life expectancy in Romania and will eliminate early retirement without penalties.
Early retirement without penalties was removed from the new law
According to the law, the minimum contribution period is 15 years for both women and men, and the full contribution period is 35 years, starting from 2035 women will retire at 65, just like men.
Regarding early retirement, the law provides for a penalty system, depending on the period that would have remained until reaching the standard retirement age.
Thus, the new pension law provides that the early pension is due, at most 5 years before reaching the standard retirement age, to people who have completed up to 5 years of contribution period over the full contributory contribution period provided for in annex no. 5, as well as those who completed the full contributory contribution period provided for in annex no. 5.
When determining the full period of contributory contributions necessary to grant the early pension, the periods in which the person was insured under an insurance contract concluded, starting from January 1, 2018, are not taken into account, based on the provisions of art. 6 para. (2) from Law no. 263/2010, of GEO no. 163/2020 as well as of art. 6 para. (2) and para. (3) of this law.
The amount of the anticipated pension is determined by reducing the amount of the old-age pension, in relation to the period of contributions completed over the full period of contributory contributions provided for in annex no. 5 and with the number of months by which the standard retirement age was reduced, according to table no. 4.
When granting early retirement, the reduction of the standard retirement age provided above cannot be combined with any other reduction regulated by this law or other normative acts.
On the date of fulfillment of the conditions for granting the old-age pension, the anticipated pension becomes, ex officio, the old-age pension and is recalculated by eliminating the reduction and, as the case may be, by adding any contribution periods made during the anticipation period or in the period of suspension of the payment of the anticipated pension as well as the addition of the periods provided for in art. 58 paragraph (2).
Who can retire early without penalty
However, there is a category of retirees who can retire early without being penalized. According to the Minister of Labour, Simona Bucura Oprescu, we are talking about men who have turned 60 years old, but who have completed a contribution period of at least 40 years.
“The early pension can be taken when you have completed the contribution period and you can retire early in two situations:
If you have 40 years of contributory service, you can retire early without any penalty. In other words, if you are a man and the age limit is 65 years, if you have 40 years of contributions, you can retire at 60. No penalty, with all rights“, explained the Minister of Labor, on Antena 3
On the other hand, Romanians who have contributed for 35 years can also benefit from early retirement, but they will be penalized.
“Also, for early retirement, if you have 35 years of contributory service, which is mandatory to retire early, you can retire early by reducing the penalty from 30% under the old law, to a penalty of 24%, as it is on the new law”, said Simona Bucura-Oprescu.
Therefore, early retirement without penalties is only possible until August 31, 2024.
Tags: Early retirement penalties apply September Official explanations
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