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With reference to its observation, the Committee hopes that the Government’s next report will contain detailed information on the measures adopted or envisaged on the following points.

I. Situation of the legislation on social security

1. Part V (Old-age benefit), Articles 28 and 29 of the Convention. (a) Under the terms of section 15 of Decree No. 67-025 of 1967, the monthly amount of the old-age or invalidity pension is equal to 20 per cent of the average monthly remuneration which serves as a basis for the calculation of the pension. The average monthly remuneration is obtained by dividing the total remuneration subject to contributions for the three or five last years prior to the date of qualification for the pension by the number of civil months corresponding to this period, the choice being dictated by the interests of the insured person. The Committee requests the Government to indicate, if possible giving examples, the manner in which the average monthly remuneration is calculated in practice in cases in which the beneficiary, although meeting the conditions set out in section 13 of the Decree, has not paid contributions during the last three or five years prior to the date of qualification for the pension. The Committee would also like to be provided with information on the impact of this method of calculation on the amount of the old-age or invalidity benefit provided to such a beneficiary.

(b) The Committee requests the Government to indicate under which provision a reduced benefit is secured, in accordance with Article 29, paragraph 2, of the Convention, to a person protected who has completed a qualifying period of contribution or employment, without however fulfilling the requirement of 20 years of coverage required by section 13(1)(a) above.

2. Part VII (Family benefit), Article 43 (length of the qualifying period). With reference to its previous comments, the Committee once again draws the Government’s attention to the need to reduce to three months, in accordance with the Convention, the length of the qualifying period for entitlement to family allowances, which currently stands at six consecutive months of employment with one or several employers (sections 8 and 9 of Decree No. 65-116 of 18 August 1965).

3. Part XIII (Common provisions), Article 69(b) (in relation to Articles 30 and 38). Please indicate whether section 23(2) of Decree No. 67-025 of 1967, under which the benefit may be suspended when the insured person is serving a sentence of detention, has been amended in accordance with the indications provided in previous reports so as to enable the beneficiary of a pension to receive all her or his entitlements, even if he or she is maintained out of public funds.

II. Level of benefits

1. Part XI (Standards to be complied with by periodical payments). The Committee notes that the report contains the calculation of benefits according to the three formulae established in Articles 65, 66 and 67 of the Convention, taking the SMIG as the reference wage in each case. The report indicates that, for the calculation of benefits, the National Social Security Fund (CNSS) takes into account the SMIG and not the wage of a standard beneficiary which, in the context of Niger, is difficult to determine. In so doing, the Government refers to the interoccupational collective agreement, which determines the sector and class of economic activity of the standard beneficiary - a skilled manual male employee selected in accordance with Article 65, paragraph 6(b), or an ordinary adult male labourer selected in accordance with Article 66, paragraph 4(b). As this choice was not made in accordance with these provisions, the Committee observes that the Government does not appear to have understood the purpose and methodology established by the Convention for the selection of the standard beneficiary and the determination of the reference wage. The choice of the standard beneficiary, in accordance with Article 65 or Article 66 of the Convention, is necessary to determine the reference wage of a skilled or unskilled worker, on the basis of which it would be possible to undertake an objective comparison of the replacement rate of the benefits provided by the national schemes of the various Members and the level prescribed by the Convention. The calculation of benefits for a standard beneficiary, as required by the Convention, is therefore an exercise which serves solely as a means of supervising its application and for the purposes of international comparison of the replacement rates in member States. The Committee notes that, in the case of the social security system in Niger, this supervision and international comparison exercise is not possible as the wage of the standard beneficiary is not determined in accordance with the precise methodology established by the Convention, but as a function of the SMIG, which cannot correspond at the same time to the wage of a skilled employee and that of an ordinary labourer. As the SMIG must be nearer to the wage of an ordinary labourer, the Committee requests the Government to calculate the benefits in its next report solely on the basis of Article 66 of the Convention. Furthermore, to be able to use the SMIG as the reference wage in the context of Article 66, the report has to demonstrate that there is no variation between the SMIG and the wage actually received by an ordinary unskilled labourer in the manufacture of machinery other than electrical machinery, or defined in accordance with the provisions of Article 66, paragraph 5. Finally, the Committee draws the Government’s attention to the fact that Article 67 is applicable to social security schemes which protect all residents, and not only employees, as is the case in Niger.

2. Article 66, paragraph 8 (adjustment of current periodical payments). Under the terms of section 21 of Decree No. 67-025 of 1967, "the rates of current periodical payments provided as pensions may be reviewed by decree of the Council of Ministers on the proposal of the Minister of Labour following substantial changes in the general level of wages resulting from substantial changes in the cost of living, taking into account the financial possibilities of the pensions branch and as a function of changes in the guaranteed interoccupational minimum wage". In its report, the Government indicates that the social protection schemes managed by the CNSS provide for the rates of benefits to be reviewed in line with increases in the SMIG. However, there has been no increase in the SMIG since 1 October 1980, at which date it was set at 18,898 CFA francs. The low rate of the SMIG can be explained by the economic situation of the country.

The Committee therefore understands that there has been no readjustment of pensions for over 25 years to take into account the inflation that has occurred over that period and the changes in the general level of earnings. It also observes that the readjustment of pensions is blocked, as it is subordinated in law to changes in the SMIG. The Committee notes that the imposition of this additional requirement is not in accordance with Article 66, paragraph 8, of the Convention. In view of the importance that it attaches to the maintenance of the purchasing power of pensions, which are very frequently the main or only source of income for pensioners, the Committee hopes that the Government will take the necessary measures to remove this requirement from section 21 of Decree No. 67-025 of 1967 so as to ensure the readjustment of the rates of current periodical payments provided, among others, for old age and employment injury (with the exception of those covering temporary incapacity) following substantial changes in the general level of earnings resulting from substantial changes in the cost of living, as required by Article 66, paragraph 8, of the Convention. Please also provide the full statistical data required by the report form under Title VI, Article 65.

3. Part VII (Family benefit), Article 44 (total value of benefits). According to the statistics provided in the report, in 2002 the total amount of cash benefits provided to persons protected (1,694,076,908 CFA francs) was in excess of 3 per cent of the interoccupational guaranteed minimum wage (SMIG) multiplied by the total number of the children of all the persons protected (153,046). However, the Committee notes that the amount of the SMIG, namely 18,898 CFA francs, to which the Government refers, has not changed since 1980 and therefore no longer reflects the current amount of the wage of an ordinary adult male labourer determined in accordance with Article 66 of the Convention. Under these conditions, and so as to be able to assess the extent to which the total value of family benefits attains the level prescribed by the Convention, the Committee requests the Government to recalculate the total value of family benefits on the basis of the wage of an ordinary labourer, as specified in Article 44 of the Convention.