Pension System in Albania

Abstract

This paper presents the pension system in Albania, the strengths and the weaknesses points provided by the last changes of the law. Research is used to collect data from the institute of social insurance in Albania, expectations for and assumption about the social insurance in Albania. The results of the research provide an overview of what types of reform should receive priority for the future elderly in Albania. Despite the youthfulness, Albania still faces pension problems arising from a number of historical events. In the communism time, all individuals of the working age, male and female, were required to work if able and most of elderly have the rights in the pension systems and received from the public pensions. Transition to the market economy has resulted in closing down state-owned enterprises, which workers have been compensated of early pensions. The program of the social insurance in Albania is partly inherited from the past. As a result of this, in Albania there is left a large number of beneficiaries in their pension systems and few contributors to finance those beneficiaries. By paying social security contributions and health insurance all citizens are sure to benefit during the third age.

International Organizations Lending Policy, are There Strings Attached? A Case Study From the Latest Wave of Reforms in the Albanian Social Security System

“…102 of the International Labor Organization (ILO), thereby reducing the minimum contribution requirement period from 20 to 15 years (Robert, 2010). Although several waves of reforms were passed in less than a decade, the pension deficit kept rising, averaging at a deficit of 0.2 to 0.3% of the GDP in the late 90s, with peaks of 1.1 to 1.2 in the mid-2000s (Demi, 2015). Meanwhile, rising pension endowment was highlighted by all political parties when elections approached.…”