Repair our pensions

As part of Executive’s ‘10 Ways to Save Lebanon’ issue, we asked leading figures from a range of fields to put the case for one major changes for the country. In this article, pensions expert Ibrahim Muhanna argues for better care for elderly people.   The quintessential goal of social security is to protect individuals against any financial risks they face throughout their working life and retirement. While risks of impoverishment in retirement pose special dangers for earners of low and lower-middle wages, the current National Social Security Fund’s End of Service Indemnity (NSSF EOSI) system provides little or no protection against poverty and the costs of deteriorating health throughout retirement. Over the past four decades, the Lebanese Parliament has witnessed several draft bills aimed at reforming our current system into an old age pension scheme, yet none has reached the voting stage. The majority of these reforms have aimed to