Pension: the Women40 scheme could change because of a court ruling

In connection with the court decision, Selmeczi pointed out that the case cannot remain unanswered by the legislators, and therefore a law amendment is needed.

Experts say that Women40 is discriminatory in itself, putting men in a more difficult position, and in recent weeks it has been in the spotlight. "During the debate on the 2024 budget law, an opposition MP again raised the idea of introducing a reduced pension for men, similar to the Women40 scheme. The creation of a discounted pension for men could alleviate a real social problem, but certainly not in the same way as Women40, and if Men40 is introduced, the conditions for women's discounted pensions should be significantly tightened", András Farkas, founder of Nyugdíjguru News, wrote.

The idea of discounted pensions for men has been regularly raised since the abolition of premature, deferred, early retirement and similar pensions on 31 December 2011 and the introduction of Women40 on 1 January 2011. In 2015, there was even a call for a referendum on this issue, and the Curia decided that it could be put to a referendum:

Do you think men should be allowed to retire after 40 years of work?

In the opinion of the Supreme Court, this was primarily a question of gender equality, not of the budget, and could therefore be put to the people.

The Constitutional Court, however, did not allow the issue to be put to a referendum.

In their view, the referendum would have prevented the Constitution from being enforced. The Constitution says that women have the right to a benefit and the referendum would have removed this benefit. It would also have affected a prohibited subject, the budget. "However, this failure does not seem to have deterred the supporters of Men40 since then," András Farkas wrote.

"Even the reduced pension for women is an alien element in the current funded system of old-age pensions, as it shifts women of working age from potential contributors to secure pensioners, i.e. it reduces income (immediately) while increasing expenditure (for a very long time)," the expert points out. According to András Farkas, the Men40 is not a viable option on its own, and the Women40 in its current form is increasingly expensive, and the introduction of a gender-neutral flexible pension scheme could be a solution to both problems.

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