Full early retirement for people with long tenure or early retirement for people working in challenging conditions. This is also being debated in the Petr Fiala government’s (ODS) drive for pension reform, which the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (MPSV) wants to deliver this year. According to Minister advisory committee member Marian Jurečka (KDU-ČSL), the situation that will emerge in 20 or 30 years cannot be viewed through the same lens as now.

It has emerged several times in the public sphere that the Ministry of Home Affairs and Communications is considering raising the retirement age to 68 years as part of pension reforms. Despite the fact that experts have long warned that pension boundaries should be moved, the news generated a critical wave of reaction.

Economist Filip Pertold of IDEA think-tank and adviser to Minister Jurečka on pension issues told the Echo24 newspaper that the internal debate is about various exemptions or waivers that could be introduced if the age limit is moved to the stated level. “For example, the possibility of full early retirement for people with long tenure, say if they’ve worked for 45 years, is being discussed,” Pertold told the Echo24 newspaper.

He also emphasized that there should be an option of early departure for people working in difficult conditions, which will be determined precisely by the hygiene post. “Since February, tax allowances for part-time workers have been implemented, which in the future can go hand in hand, for example combined with partial retirement,” added Pertold.

Viktor Vojtko, an MP for the STAN movement and a member of Jureček’s advisory team, also spoke with Echo24. The situation in 20, 30 years cannot be looked at through the same lens as the current situation, but we can infer a lot from the known trends,” said Vojtko. “First of all, no doubt, as technology advances, robotics and artificial intelligence, such jobs will change a lot and physically demanding jobs will decrease, secondly, we have more students in the next generation, and thirdly, we can expect further advances in medicine and improved quality of life in older ages, Vojtko added.

According to him, in terms of demanding a profession, it may be necessary to carry out an evaluation related to retirement for that reason too. Vojtko also detailed how he envisions the permanent early retirement mentioned by Pertold. “Personally, it makes more sense to me to shorten the retirement age based on length of service, for example when exceeding 40 years of service for each additional year, or higher contribution to such a demanding profession,” Vojtko told Echo24.

The head of parliamentary club Pirátů, Jakub Michálek, told Echo24 that he supports taking individual decisions about their retirement. “My opinion is that the system has to adapt to gradual retirement, which has often worked out in practice, and people decide on an individual basis based on how they feel,” Michálek told Echo24.

Jakub Augusta, spokesman for the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, told Echo24 that the Czech Republic expects a large increase in the number of elderly people in the next 10 to 20 years. In the current situation, the number of recipients of old-age pensions, which are currently around 2.4 million people, will reach around 3.2 million in 20 years, which is around 800 thousand more. At the same time, the share of the working age population will decrease by at least 10%. According to him, the Ministry of Home Affairs and Communications is discussing in detail the impact of a possible shift in the retirement age from a medical perspective.

“For example, part of the Report on the State of the Pension System, which must be submitted by the Ministry of Home Affairs and Communications to the government every 5 years, also contains an assessment of the determination of the retirement age according to the definition of the quarter parameter of life spent in retirement. We are also working with data on life expectancy in the health sector,” said Augusta while adding, if there is an increase in the retirement age, the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health is obliged to submit another report to the government, in which the obligation to evaluate life expectancy in health is also required. “However, in this context, we can also refer to data from the World Health Organization, according to which the average healthy life expectancy in the Czech Republic remains at a level below 69 years, that is, significantly above the current retirement age,” Augusta added.