The Social Security Fund (SSF) Board has rejected a new pension formula for being "too complicated".
Board member Assoc Prof Sustarum Thammaboosadee, who is also the coordinator of the Progressive Social Security Team, said yesterday after the panel meeting that he would like to apologise for his failure to convince the SSF Board to accept the society's proposal, but he would continue his efforts at the next meeting in March.
He said this will affect more than 300,000 insured people under Section 39 who were once employed and then continued to make SSF contributions by paying the insurance themselves.
He said the new pension calculation will be adjusted according to inflation and fluctuations in the cost of living.
For example, the proportion that was previously calculated from a salary of 5,000 baht 20 years ago will be updated according to the current inflation rate.
"The SSF will have to spend more on 300,000 insured members, but the research team has calculated that it will not affect the sustainability of the fund. In 10 years, pensions for the group will cost about 60 billion baht from the fund's status of 2.6 trillion baht," he said.
He said that the calculation method was pre-approved by the sub-committee last October and submitted to the SSF yesterday.
He further insisted that the formula will not impact the rights of employers and employees under Section 33 because there will be other additional contributions from both sides into the new formula.
The resolution of the meeting was to tell the team to revise the formula and present it to the board again, he said.
"We don't understand why the SSF delayed making this decision, but we suspect it might involve our aggressive cross-examination of the board," he said.
He also called on the public to monitor the case, saying that the fund should be managed with transparency and open to scrutiny.
The SSF is the country's largest public fund and is currently valued at over 2.65 trillion baht. It provides welfare and financial security to its 24 million subscribers.
