Tunisia – Social funds in Tunisia are witnessing a severe financial crisis that was directly and negatively reflected on the lives of citizens, through the deterioration of public utilities services, especially in the public health sector, in addition to the lack of medicines and the low value of pensions in a way that is not in line with the expenses of living.
This crisis takes place in a complex vicious circle that reflects the overlapping of debts and problems between the funds and the related sectors, where both the National Social Security Fund and the National Retirement Fund and Social Capacity suffer from accumulated debts towards the National Disease Insurance Fund.
In turn, the National Disease Insurance Fund suffers from a liquidity crisis that prevents it from fulfilling its pledges towards the central pharmacy, and the latter is also in a suffocating liquidity crisis that affected its ability to pay the dues of international pharmaceutical laboratories and factories, which resulted in a lack of supply of some life medications.
While deep structural solutions to reform social security systems in Tunisia were absent, the Authority is trying to mobilize additional resources from private companies that have not been committed to paying their contributions to the Social Security Fund in the private sector by issuing a social amnesty for delay and exempting them from the fine to encourage them to pay.
This fund responsible for providing social coverage and retirement pensions for workers in the private sector suffers from a severe structural crisis that threatens its ability to fulfill its obligations to social content benefiting from social services and pensions as well as towards the disease insurance fund.
What are the goals of the authority from declaring a social amnesty in front of companies?
Regarding the options available to the National Social Security Fund to improve the extraction of contributions from private companies, the director of the extraction of the fund, Nadia Al -Hadrouk bin Abdullah, explains that the social amnesty “represents a solution to the solutions to fill in additional resources for the fund and settle the status of companies.”
This is the second social amnesty of its kind in the rule of the current president, Qais Saeed (who has ruled the country since 2019) after the National Social Security Fund acknowledged the previous one in 2022 and won resources estimated at 700 million dinars (220 million dollars).
The official told Al -Jazeera Net that this amnesty allows private companies that have not been obligated to pay their contribution to settling their status without paying any financial fines for delay, stating that the fund “is witnessing a financial crisis that threatens its ability to fulfill its obligations towards the content and towards the disease insurance fund.”
Despite the complaints of some of the delay in the disbursement of their pensions, it confirms that there is no delay in the level of the disbursement of retirement marches, stressing that the fund can fulfill this commitment thanks to the perseverance of many companies and workers for their own account to pay their pleasures regularly, she said.
How do experts look at social pardon to put the sins of delay?
The economist and former minister Mohsen Hassan told Al -Jazeera Net that the social amnesty to put the delay fines addressed to private companies and workers to their own account “will enable additional resources to the National Social Security Fund, but it will not solve the structural problem in the fund.”
In turn, economic expert Kholoud Al -Toumi tells Al -Jazeera Net that the proposed social pardon is “just analgesics and does not rise to a real level of solution” to reform the social security system in the private sector, which complains of miscarriage, misconduct, management, and suspicions of corruption, according to its expression.
The National Social Security Fund has opened the door for social amnesty to put forward the delay sins for private companies and those working for their own account in late October to continue until the end of next March in order to mobilize resources within 700 million dinars (220 million dollars).
This number, if achieved, it barely exceeds the value of pensions demanding that the Social Security Fund disburse this month by about 563 million dinars (177 million dollars), while the fund also faces the dilemma of its accumulated debts in front of the disease insurance fund, which reaches this year about 3 billion dinars (one billion dollars) .
What reasons are you behind the crisis of social funds in Tunisia?
Experts attribute the crisis of social funds to the high percentage of retirees compared to active generations in addition to the decline in social contributions by companies due to economic difficulties, weak growth and high unemployment, as well as the growing unorganized economy, poor governance and the absence of reforms.
In the context, Mohsen Hassan confirms that there is an imbalance in the financial status of the National Fund for Social Security and Social Funds in general, due to the deterioration of the economic activity of institutions, weak economic growth, investment decline, degradation of the business climate, poor employment and employment.
He says, “When the profitability of special economic institutions declines, it fails to push its social contributions to the National Social Security Fund,” also reference to the lack of financial resources of the fund to the growing unorganized economy in the country “without finding concrete solutions to contain it.”
How was the life of the Tunisians affected by the social fund crisis?
For Mohsen Hassan, if the economic situation does not improve, “the funds will remain soaked in their crisis,” which results in a response in all social and health services, and a shortage of medicines and weaknesses of the value of pensions are caused.
“The impact of the social funds crisis is clear on the life of the Tunisian citizen on the level of deteriorating health and social services and at the level of disease insurance, the lack of medicines and compensation for professional work accidents and the weak retirement marches that are not commensurate with the high prices.”
For its part, Kholoud Al -Toumi says that the Tunisian citizen lives in disappointment and frustration as a result of the deteriorating services of public utilities, especially in the social and health field, noting that his life is turning upside down by referring him to retirement because he obtained a weak pension and arrives late.
She adds that the Tunisian citizen spends a long time at work and pays his contributions in advance to social funds in the hope of obtaining social benefits of quality or retirement that guarantees him a decent living, but what happens on the ground is the exact opposite, as she put it.
According to a previous study carried out by the Tunisian Institute for Strategic Studies (an institution affiliated with the Presidency of the Republic), the percentage of retirees in 2018 is about 13% of the total population and is expected to rise to 18% by 2030.
The study showed that about 117,000 retirees are receiving 100 dinars per month (30 dollars), and that 3% of the retired country’s senior tires live below the poverty line.
What are the proposed solutions to reform social funds?
Mohsen Hassan says that there must be real solutions to reform social funds by pushing economic activity, growth, private investment, employment, integrating the irregular economy, reviewing social security systems and uniting them in a unified system instead of dividing them between a public and private sector.
For its part, Kholoud Al -Toumi says that the reform of social funds requires a serious political will to review the laws and legislation regulating these funds, fight corruption and poor governance within them, instead of resorting to patchy solutions such as granting facilities for private companies in order to pay their contributions.
Tunisia is likely to achieve economic growth for 2024 by less than 1.6% while aspiring to achieve more than 2%, while achieving 0.6% growth in 2023.
