The Main Reasons and Goals of the Pension Reform in Georgia

Abstract

The concept of pension reform is a government’s plan to improve the pension system and reflects the long-term risks and takes into account the socio-economic reality in the country. The aim of the reform is to protect better existing retirees from poverty through indexation, which is guaranteed to maintain the retiree's purchasing power level; Providing the next generation of retirees with a higher pension income, which will be directly proportional to the income received during the employment period and the profit of the pension fund. The private pension system will allow employed citizens to plan better their retirement age and not depend only on state funding and be able to mobilize a certain amount before reaching retirement age. The need for reform stems from negative factors such as: an increase in the number of people of retirement age, a decrease in the birth rate, a decrease in the working age population, migration processes, etc. Analysis of the existing system show that it is impossible to maintain or improve the existing replacement ratio only in the medium and long term at the expense of state funding. The private accumulation model will be an additional component of the pension system, which will contribute to a significant increase in the replacement rate. The existence of a private accumulation system will make it possible to define better the fundamental principle of social pension, which implies protection of the population of retirement age from poverty. To achieve this goal, it is important that the social pension does not fall below the subsistence level and also that the pension should be increased at least in parallel with inflation or in the event of economic growth above inflation. Keywords: Pension system, Reform, Pension fund, Government, Population.