CMNT_TITLE

Invalidity, Old-Age and Survivors' Benefits Convention, 1967 (No. 128) - Austria (RATIFICATION: 1969)

Other comments on C128

Direct Request

2012
2008
1994
1989

Replies received to the issues raised in a direct request which do not give rise to further comments

2019

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Article 13 of the Convention. Rehabilitation measures. The Government indicates in its report that access to disability pension is granted only if it is impossible to restore ability to work through rehabilitation measures, making rehabilitation compulsory. As a result of changes made to vocational protection in connection with disability pension, access to such pension was made more difficult in the case of skilled workers and was facilitated in the case of unskilled workers through the hardship provision, which will expire in 2015. The Committee asks the Government to supply the legal texts concerning the above amendments and to provide further information, including statistics, on concrete results achieved in practice, indicating, inter alia, the number of vocational rehabilitation measures before and after the reform, the number of rehabilitated disabled persons who found employment, the number of suspension of benefits due to the beneficiary not undergoing rehabilitation process as well as any measures envisaged following the expiry of the hardship provision in 2015.

Article 17(a) in conjunction with Article 26. Level of old age benefit. According to the calculations provided in the report, the replacement rate of the old-age pension served to the standard beneficiary (skilled manual male employee determined under Article 26(6)(c) of the Convention) after 30 years of insurance decreased from 46.2 per cent in 2002 to 43.12 per cent in 2011. The Government indicates that before the 2003 pension reform, each year of pension coverage was assigned a specific incremental rate of 2 per cent whereas following the reform the new rate is 1.78 per cent of the assessment base for each year of coverage. The assessment basis is now calculated using the average annual income for the reference period by means of revaluation coefficients whereas, until 2004, those coefficients had been specified by the Federal Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Consumer Protection largely in parallel to consumer price inflation. Also, the period of contribution for entitlement to the maximum replacement rate, i.e. 80 per cent of the pension assessment basis, is now obtained after 45 years as opposed to 40 years previously. These reforms aimed at stabilizing the development of spending in relation to pensions by restraining the rise of costs in the statutory pension system and through structural changes enabling workers to remain economically active longer while preserving social symmetry and enhancing fairness with regard to contributions. In view of the long-term trend towards the reduction of the replacement rate of old-age pensions in Austria, the Committee asks the Government to specify whether actuarial projections have been made to determine the future development of this trend, particularly with a view to ensuring that the minimum replacement rates prescribed by the Convention continue to be observed.

Article 29(1). Adjustment of benefits. The Committee notes the extensive information, including statistics, provided by the Government in reply to its previous comments. It notes, in particular, that during the reporting period, various discretionary decisions were taken regarding the adjustment of pensions due to the transition from net wage adjustment to an adjustment rule based on the development of consumer prices, taking into account the interests of the insured as well as poverty reduction. In the period 2011–12, the maximum pension benefiting from adjustment measures was raised substantially. The Committee asks the Government to continue supplying the statistical data on the evolution of the consumer price index (VPI) in comparison with the standard wage index (TLI), as well as the discretionary adjustment measures aimed at poverty reduction among persons in old age.

Comments made by the Austrian Federal Chamber of Labour (BAK). Noting the comments made by the Austrian Federal Chamber of Labour appended to the Government’s report received 31 August 2012, the Committee asks the Government to supply information in respect of the issues raised therein in its next report.