Contributing to a mandatory pension allows you, as a member, to cover eventualities of disability or protect your family in the event of death as a result of a common illness or accident. Hence the importance of making these contributions month after month.
(Pensions: Hernández and Petro propose changes).
If you are thinking of settling in another country or live abroad, you can continue contributing to a pension in any of the two schemes that exist in the country, either in the Average Premium Scheme (RPM) or in the individual savings scheme with Solidarity (RAIS) administered by pension funds such as Porvenir.
Today Colombia has bilateral agreements with twelve countries that allow it to add the weeks quoted abroad to the labor history built in Colombia. To understand how you can quote your pension contributions from abroad, María Lorena Botero, manager of Pension Benefits at the Future Pension and Severance Fund, clarifies the most frequently asked questions.
How much should be contributed if you live abroad?
There is no difference in the minimum and maximum contribution limits to the General Pension System for people who are outside the country, so the contribution base income corresponds to the income declared by the affiliate, without being less than one (1) SMLMV (Current Monthly Legal Minimum Wage) or more than twenty-five (25) SMLMV.
Is it also mandatory to make contributions to health?
This payment is optional. However, it will always be important to have health coverage.
How is the payment of contributions made from abroad?
The first thing is to be affiliated with the Social Security System. For example, Porvenir has a transactional page that allows people who are abroad to link online. It is important to bear in mind that the payment of contributions can be made through the Integrated Contribution Settlement Form PILA, which is administered by the Information Operators, among which is Contributions online.
With which countries does Colombia have alliances so that contributors abroad can access a pension?
Colombia has signed bilateral Social Security agreements with Spain, Chile, Bolivia, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Ecuador, Peru, Paraguay, Portugal, Salvador and the Dominican Republic. In the case of Porvenir, there are already pensions for old age, disability and death as a result of the agreements with Spain and Chile, mainly.
What benefits do these bilateral agreements have for those who quote abroad?
These agreements allow affiliates to add the weeks quoted both in Colombia and in one of the aforementioned countries, when requesting their pension benefit.
What should a member know who wants to retire in Colombia and has contributed in another country?
The pension by international Social Security agreement applies as long as weeks are required to reach the pension in Colombia, either for disability, old age or death pension.
(The ‘match’ of the government programs of Petro and Hernández).
For example, if a member requests recognition of his old-age pension in Porvenir and the weeks contributed in Colombia are not enough to access the Minimum Old-Age Pension Guarantee (which is 1,150 weeks, equivalent to 23 years), but he pension contributions in any of the member countries, you can request the sum of the weeks contributed in each of the countries to complete the minimum required.
International Social Security agreements do not contemplate the transfer of money resources, only quoted time that is converted into weeks to add to work history.
Can contributions be made simultaneously? that is, in Colombia and also in the country where you are based?
Yes, there can be simultaneous contribution, for example as a dependent worker in Spain and as an independent worker in Colombia. However, at the time of retirement, only the contributions made in the country in which the benefit is requested will be taken into account.
