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EARLY RETIREMENT DREAMS FADE AS TURKEY TACKLES ITS GROWING SOCIAL SECURITY DEFICIT
L'età minima pensionabile ancora oggi è ferma a 47 anni
Vincent Boland

In May last year, as his teenage daughters neared university age and he faced the cost of sending them to a cramming school, Mehmet Ozdemir did what millions of Turks have done. He retired at 44, claimed his state pension, and went straight back to work.
It was an arrangement that suited everybody. Mr Ozdemir was able to nearly triple his monthly income, by qualifying for a state pension of TL565 ($425) on top of his renegotiated wage of TL600. His employer a travel agency for which he works as a courier, saved on his social security contributions; so it was able to afford to raise his wage from the TL400 it paid him before his retirement.
His daughters, aged 17 and 16, will soon enrol in a dershane, a cramming school that many Turkish teenagers attend to prepare for university and to make up for the shortcomings of the state education system.

The casualty of Mr Ozdemir's arrangement is the taxpayer. In 2005, Turkey's social security deficit reached 4.8 per cent of gross national product, the highest among countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The chief cause of the ballooning deficit is early retirement, according to Tuncay Teksoz, head of the social security administration at the labour ministry.
This week, Turkey finally took a big step towards reining it in. A social security reform bill was approved by parliament on Wednesday, nine months behind schedule, heavily amended and politically sensitive. It envisages a complete overhaul of the social security system, making pension benefits equal for all employees, giving free healthcare to all children under 18 and gradually raising the retirement age to 65 for everyone.
Observers say it is the most important piece of reform legislation since the abolition of the death penalty in 2002.

Unlike most OECD countries, Turkey's population is both young and growing and is likely to remain so until at least 2020. In principle, it probably should not have a social security deficit. But between 1986 and 1992 populist governments slashed the retirement age for women and men from 55 and 60 to 38 and 43 respectively, arguing it would cut unemployment.
It did not - it merely sent the social security deficit soaring. Reforms approved in 1999 and implemented from 2002 began to address the anomaly. But the minimum retirement age in 2006 is still only 47, according to Mr Teksoz, and 60 per cent of retired people today are under 60. Without further reform, the deficit would have hit 7 per cent of GNP over time; now it should fall to less than 1 per cent by 2040.
Yet this week's reform package should have gone further, critics say. It does not address two pressing challenges facing Turkey - the 50 per cent of the workforce who are unregistered and the cost of employing people. The culprit is that up to 20 per cent of a salary is social security contributions, the highest among OECD countries. If the reform package had included a cut in contribution rates it might have encouraged more companies to enter the registered economy.

VINCENT BOLAND
Tratto dal «Financial Times» del 21 aprile


  • Contribution rates: tassi di contribuzione
  • Courier: corriere
  • Cramming school: scuola che prepara studenti privati agli esami
  • Early retirement: pensionamento precoce
  • Employees: lavoratori dipendenti
  • Employer: datore di lavoro
  • (to) Enrol: iscriver(si)
  • Labour ministry: ministero del Lavoro
  • Minimum retirement age: età minima pensionabile
  • Monthly income: reddito mensile
  • Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD): Organizzazione per la cooperazione e lo sviluppo economico (OCSE)
  • Pension benefits: assegni pensionistici
  • Populist governments: governi populisti
  • Reform legislation: iniziativa legislativa in senso riformatore
  • Reform package: pacchetto di riforme
  • (to) Rein in (something): tenere/riportare sotto controllo
  • (to) Retire: andare in pensione
  • Retired people: pensionati
  • Retirement age: età pensionabile/del pensionamento
  • Salary: stipendio
  • Schedule: scadenza prevista
  • Social security administration: amministrazione del settore della previdenza sociale
  • Social security contributions: contributi previdenziali (ovvero "National insurance contributions")
  • Social security deficit: disavanzo nel settore della previdenza sociale
  • Social security reform bill: progetto di riforma della previdenza sociale
  • State education system: sistema d'istruzione statale
  • State pension: pensione statale
  • Taxpayer: contribuente
  • TL (Turkish lira): lira turca
  • Unregistered workforce: lavoratori in nero/sommersi (anche "off-the-book workers")
  • Wage: salario