270,000 people have been fired since the pandemic began in Ecuador

In May, 110,000 disaffiliations to Social Security were reported and in June, 30,000.

Jorge Wated, President of the Directing Council of the IESS, warned that, since the health crisis in Ecuador began, almost 270,000 people were fired and stopped contributing to Social Security.

He said that this would further complicate the entity’s stability because it would no longer have liquidity to pay retirement pensions from next month, if the state does not pay off its debt.

Wated revealed that, in these pandemic months, the most difficult period for job stability was in May, when 110,000 disenrollments were reported. In June, 30,000 disaffiliations were reported.

One of the options that the entity is considering, to give stability to retirement pensions, would be the increase in contributions to Social Security by the workers; since, according to Wated “there are 12 contributions per year and retirees charge 14”.

Employer Debt

Wated explained that the collection of the employer debt is not a viable solution to the crisis that the IESS is going through, since the employers’ debt would go to another fund, not to the pension fund. According to estimates by various experts, the outstanding value for default by employers is around USD 2 billion.

“It is not just a matter of charging defaulters, because the contributions of the companies go to another Social Security fund and the money that we, the workers, contributes goes directly to the pension fund.”

Unemployment insurance

In reference to several complaints about the delay in the collection of unemployment insurance, the head of the IESS indicated that this fund is fully financed and the necessary policies have been approved so that workers can access it.

“Delays have been an operational issue, everything is being resolved in order to pay unemployment insurance. In the next few days we hope to make the payments ”.

Irregularities in disability pensions

Wated explained that in recent years the number of people who retired due to disabilities has increased significantly and that this alert was sent to the Ministry of Health on February 14 of this year.

“We are reviewing all the cases and the Comptroller’s Office will carry out a special examination regarding this situation. There is a possible case of corruption in the advance payment of retirement pensions. ”

Source: Ecuavisa – El Comercio