In a video posted last Friday on the X server (Twitter), Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki shows off a scheme that – he claims – “It’s rarely spoken, and it’s awful.”.
It displays data for the years 2007-2015, i.e. the period when the Civic Platform was in power in Poland. By law and justice’s account, it occurred during this period “Sold” about a thousand state-owned enterprises for PLN 57.8 billion.
“What happened to that money?” Morawiecki asks rhetorically and answers the same: They seized power because they cannot rule..
“Before that They took our money from OFE – added. After the prime minister’s words, another billboard appears in the video showing the amount 153 billion Polish zlotys And the signature: “Income from open-ended pension funds.”
The rest of the article is under the video
See also: First election, then record inflation. Is Poland following in the footsteps of Hungary?
They took half of the OFE, now they’re going to take the other?
PiS politicians go further with their accusations against Tusk. Their statements show that the PO not only withdrew half of the money accumulated in the OFE, but also With the remaining portion still in the chests, He will do the same as nine years ago, that is, “take” them from the Poles.
On August 9 this year, on Wnet radio, Waldemar Buda, Minister of Development and Technology, said: – Donald Tusk proposes many things here. Why? He got more than 100 billion from the pension accounts of Poles I am sure of this offer [świadczenie chorobowe płacone przez ZUS od pierwszego dnia – przyp. red.] He would like to realize that he takes the second 100 billion. (…) – He said.
– Donald Tusk The first thing he will definitely do forest trade and He will take the second part of the OFE (…). I’d rather it be in the accounts of Poles saving for retirement – he added on Wnet Radio Morning.
Money.pl was asked by Buda, how did he know that Civil Coalition Having come to power, he will eliminate the OFE, he replied: “Tusk took half of it [środków z OFE – przyp. red.] And it showed Do not respect the privacy of these funds. His lack of skills in a short time may lead to a budget deficit And further use of this money.
We also asked the Minister what would happen to the OFE if PiS won? To this question, he answered only that “they will remain the possession of the Poles.”
Let us remind you that the government project has been frozen in Parliament for two years Converting open-ended pension funds into Individual Retirement Accounts (IKE+). The government accepted it at the beginning of 2021.
It is assumed that Poles with savings in OFE will decide whether to transfer the accumulated funds to IKE +, which will include Obligation to pay a 15 percent state transfer feeor transferred to ZUS. At the end of 2022 it was 14.7 million people are in OFE, five times more than participating in employee capital plans.
Money transferred from OFE to IKE, unlike money transferred to ZUS, will be subject to inheritance.
We also asked Pawi Boris, Chairman of the Polish Development Fund and Advisor to Mateusz Morawiecki, what will happen to the OFE after the PiS elections. It was reported that “the government has not done any work on open-ended pension funds for more than two years”. He also stated that the planned Law and Justice party government The alternative does not mean the liquidation of open pension funds, but their privatization.
In response to a question about whether the Law and Justice Party, which did not have a parliamentary majority in this period to pass its law, would return to it after winning the elections, he replied that he did not know.
Electoral lies
MP KO, former Deputy Finance Minister Isabella Leszina, in an interview with Money. pl called both statements (Prime Minister and Minister of Development) Electoral lies.
She added that it is possible for the KO party to sue PiS politicians in the electoral procedures because of these statements. According to her, the reality of OFE is just that PO saved pensions of Poles.
The deputy stated that the government of the Civic Platform decided to transfer some of the contributions of Poles from the OFE to sub-accounts to the ZUS (which happened 9 years ago), because further saving in the OFE could be “a bad deal for future pensioners.”
It could happen again with us Argentine scriptwhere it occurred collapse of private pensions.
Argentinian text
Let us remind you that the boards of directors of private pension funds in Argentina demanded up to 30 percent. The value of paid subscriptions as commission. In Poland it was 10%, but it seems that there is also talk of 20%.
The handling of money was also bad for the state’s finances. Prior to Tusk’s reform, the contribution paid was to open chests 7,3 proc. And it was more than, for example, in Sweden. It is now 2.9 percent.
Funds from open-ended pension funds went into the capital market, which needed to be recapitalized, but that capital was subject to fluctuations.
In order to be able to fulfill its obligations to open pension funds, the state It had to issue PLN 20 billion in debt annuallyThen the money was bought from him. – It was crazy, – the former deputy finance minister says succinctly.
Leszczyna mentions that in order to avoid the scenario from Argentina, the PO government decided to transfer part of the money accumulated in the OFE to individual sub-accounts in ZUS, which eventually turned out well for the Poles, because their savings in ZUS are now safe and highly indexed.
As MP KO points out, in 2014, when part of the money from OFE went to ZUS, there was still 153 billion Polish zlotys. For comparison, at the end of 2022, these assets were worth 168 billion Polish zlotys. This means that In nearly a decade Savings in almost open retirement funds 15 million Poles increased by only PLN 15 billion.
OFE old-age pensions and the “slider” mechanism
As Leszczyna adds, an additional mechanism to protect pension savings from OFE has been introduced by the Tusk government The so-called slider mechanism.
supposed to prevent Drying the pockets of the insured. Ten years before the insured person reaches retirement age, his money is gradually recovered in the OFE and transferred to his sub-account in the ZUS. The important thing is that this money is subject to inheritance, provided that the insured did not receive an old-age pension from the ZUS for more than 3 years before his death.
As Leszczyna asserts, if she wins the election, KO does not intend to liquidate or divert OFE. One of the reasons Link these assets to the value of several listed companies.
As Retirement Institute President Dr. Anthony Kulick explains, Open-end pension funds expire todaybut they give to ZUS – thanks to the slider described above – annually several billion zlotyswhich means that the state can contribute less to the social insurance fund to pay pensions.
What will happen to the insured’s money if the Law and Justice party, after winning the elections, returns to the idea of \u200b\u200b”privatization” and the actual liquidation of open-ended pension funds?
– Open-ended pension funds hold shares of several publicly listed companies. If those stocks were to go into the Demographic Reserve Fund, it would be ZUS, in fact The government will run these companies – reminds Dr. Kollek.
And he adds it in Polish Listed are companies in which OFE owns more than 50 percent. Involvedso it would be a form of nationalization by taking over OFE’s assets.
Katarzyna Baartman, journalist for money.pl
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