[ad_1]
The amount of the old-age pension depends on how many social security contributions a person pays during their entire working career. If contributions are not paid on time, Sodra has the right to enforce them, and those who are late or shrewd may be subject to fines or penalties.
However, Sodra herself has the right not to pay pensions and other benefits, even if the resident has fulfilled his duties in a timely and proper manner. In this case, not only will you not get your money back, but you will not be able to claim interest on late payment.
Lost a considerable amount of money
The law stipulates that the pension is granted and paid from the date on which the pension is entitled, but not more than 6 months before the date of application for the pension.
Generally speaking, if you apply for a pension 7, 8 or more months after retirement age (for example, you are seriously ill or cannot return from abroad), you will lose one, two or more months of pension. In other words, it will decrease, although the length of service and the amount of taxes paid to Sodra will not change.
Titas de Kaunas, whose story was described some time ago by the tv3.lt portal, got into such a situation. He didn’t know that if he applied to Sodra later, his honestly earned pension would be lowered, and since he was ill, he missed the deadline.
“I have ‘stolen’ money for two months. I think it is worth taking the ministry to court in a class action lawsuit. After all, this is our money. They belong to us as long as we live,” the reader resented, losing a total of 730 euros.
A year and a half have passed since the publication of their story, but they have not recovered the money, nor has the procedure been changed to deprive the population of money because of them.
“Perhaps what you have heard on this subject? Well, how can that be? After all, someone should go to court and demand that this injustice be changed, ”the retiree was surprised. It is true that he did not answer whether he went to court himself for the lost money.
By the way, the 6-month period for retirees to claim a pension is twice as short as the 12-month period for claiming sickness, maternity, paternity or other benefits.
At that time, there is no fixed term to claim the benefits of the second pillar pension fund.
Justify complicated procedures
When asked why different deadlines were established for claiming the Sodra pension and other benefits, Edita Banienė, Head of the Communication Division of the Ministry of Social Security and Labor, answered the following:
“The procedure for calculating pensions is much more complicated than calculating short-term benefits: sickness, maternity. For example, sickness and maternity benefits are the same during the previous pay period.
In the case of a social security pension, it is different. It may happen that the law has changed during the last pay period and at some point this has to be taken into account, the pensions have been indexed, the person has worked and it is necessary to update the pensions after estimating the additional contributions paid. during the previous year. “
According to the manager, paying for a longer period of time in the past makes the payment procedure longer, complicated and expensive. It is alleged that the pension accrual benefit is not paid at all for the past, but only from the date of application.
E. Banienė did not answer why it is correct to set a term of 6 months in the law, after which a person loses part of the pension and this money remains in Sodra.
Neither the ministry nor Sodra responded to the total number of people who, last year, spent 6 months to claim a pension, how much money they lost, when the coronavirus swept and the authorities did not accept live clients. There is no way to answer this question.
However, in the comment sent, the Ministry indicated that, according to Sodra, during 2018-2020. about 3.2 thousand. Old-age pensions are granted from a date after the person’s retirement age.
However, this figure does not mean that all these people have missed the deadlines for applying for pensions. The number also includes people who, for example, work in the month of retirement and want the contributions of the month in which they reach retirement age to be included in the calculation of the pension, in which case the pension is usually claimed from the day of the following month, commented on by E. Banienė.
According to her, Sodra is taking steps to inform people about the upcoming retirement age and what to do, when and when. For example, a person is informed that a pension application can be submitted in advance, 3 months in advance. Also, the application can be presented online, although it is far from being used by older people.
However, E. Banienė recognized that the situation is changing:
“The Ministry of Social Security and Labor is aware of the situation and it will be resolved. It is planned to change the legislation so that people can apply for benefits within longer time limits. “
There are no objective reasons: it is negligence
Professor Romas Lazutka from Vilnius University is convinced that it is not justified to limit the time to apply for a pension without losing it.
“It is really difficult to find arguments for who needs it. If there were any obligation for Sodra to pay interest, it would have been canceled. Of course, the right to the pension should not be inherited because the social benefit is granted to the person and not to the heirs of his property.
It is until death, if a person even forgets, does not take it off, does not take it off for 10 or 15 years or does not need it, I don’t know what can happen ”, commented the professor.
According to him, abandoning the limited term would not hurt Sodra’s finances, as it would be relevant to a relatively small number of the population. On the other hand, Sodra’s income is already increasing, as wages are also increasing, from which social security contributions are paid.
“The ministry writes that it is difficult to count. But the complicated thing would be if last year you had to pay for two months and the person collected the next year. They would just count the two months of last year as they were and index them next year. If it happens another year, index again.
Elementary daily work. I don’t think that’s the reason for that restriction. It really isn’t, it’s just negligence, “explained R. Lazutka.
He said that, looking at it more broadly, he was surprised that there are a number of details in the law that ruin the life of one person or another and no one corrects them.
“Someone wrote laws, someone thought it was something, maybe they had arguments, so they should present them. But it’s hard to imagine what they could be.
Of course, one can think on a daily basis: well, how can a person forget the pension he lives on, it is clear that he will look for it, but if he does not look for it, then what are the problems here? It seems to me that what is here is simply negligence. And those details can be noticed where you don’t need a lot of money, but it is not managed ”, the professor summarized.
[ad_2]
