Authorities from the Cuban Ministry of Labor and Social Security (MTSS) clarified that the modifications to the calculation of the pensions for age and total disability will not apply to all workers in the country.
Decree 99 of that ministry, published in the Gaceta Oficial Ordinaria number 1 of 2024, will only cover workers in the business sector, Virginia Marlén García Reyes, general director of the National Social Security Institute (INASS), told the Agencia Cubana de Noticias (ACN) news agency.
Decreto 99 del 21 de diciembre de 2023, publicado en la Gaceta Oficial del 4 de enero de 2024. https://t.co/mDvmWbnz23 pic.twitter.com/086gcmNjsT
— MTSS CUBA (@MTSS_CUBA) January 11, 2024
The news agency recalls that the Council of Ministers agreed to modify article 195 of Decree 283 “Regulations of the Social Security Law,” of April 6, 2009.
“Instead, through Decree 99, it was established that from now on the basis for calculating the pensions for age and total disability is determined on the average monthly salary, which results from the highest salaries earned by the worker during five years,” she added.
The official explained that “it is important to clarify that Decree 99, modifying Decree 283, specifically in article 195, does not repeal the December 18, 2020, Decree Law, which came into force with the implementation of the Task of Reorganization, therefore the calculation of pensions is maintained based on complete years.”
In turn, she pointed out that if a worker requests his retirement in 2024, it is established that the salaries earned during 2021, 2022, and 2023 be taken into account as a reference for the calculation.
In this way, article 195 of Decree 283 “was temporarily suspended,” since the five best years of the last 15 years will not be taken as a reference, “but what regulates Decree Law 18 of taking the complete years before the retirement application for the calculation of the pension is maintained,” the news agency states.
García Reyes recalled that with the increase in salaries, pensions and social assistance benefits, “the salaries that began to be paid in 2021 were higher than those that were accrued until December 2020.”
She stressed, according to the ACN, that from now on the best salaries of 2021, 2022, 2023, or 2024 are taken into account, “depending on when the worker requests the pension, while the completion of the transition established in Decree-Law 18 is set for 2025.”
She also stated that for the calculation of the pensions, at no time are the doctorate and master’s degrees excluded, even when it exceeds 9,510 pesos, the maximum amount of the current salary scale.
For those people whose salary is 9,510 pesos, but are also paid for a master’s degree and doctorate, she indicated that “this entire amount is considered in the calculation of the pension and what is established in Decree 99 does not apply to them in this specific case.”
“It only applies when workers earn, in addition to their basic salary, payment for profits, results, prompt dispatch, or for port activity,” said the INNAS director.
She also pointed out that Decree 99 does not include those workers in the business system who requested retirement last December, as it will only cover those who requested it as of January 2024. Neither are retirees reinstated in employment included, nor are those involved in multiple employment.
Also excluded from the new provision, for not being part of the business system, are public health and education workers, for whom salary increases were recently approved, in fair recognition of their contributions to society.
