Individual Consultant to Making the Case for an Old-Age Social Pension in Federal Iraq

BACKGROUND: PENSION SYSTEM IN FEDERAL IRAQ
The pension system in the Federal Iraq is a mosaic of fragmented schemes shaped by the country's complex political history. A contributory pension scheme serving public sector employees is characterized by high coverage and relatively generous rules and benefits. This includes public sector workers who retired before 2006 and their survivors, whose pensions are funded from the government budget. Alongside this, there is a contributory pension scheme for private sector workers, recently reformed through legislative changes introduced by the Law on Pension and Social Security for Private Sector Workers No 18 of 2023, supported by the ILO. In spite of its strong alignment with the ILO Social Security (Minimum Standards) Convention, 1952 (No. 102), ratified by Iraq in March 2023, its coverage is rather low, and benefits are less generous compared to the public sector. The private sector pension scheme has been estimated to cover about 350,000 workers in 2024.
A third component of the pension system includes budget-financed schemes for beneficiaries of the contributory system before 2006, as well as non-contributory benefits for families of martyrs and victims of terrorism and political persecution.
Despite what appears to be an extensive coverage, the majority of the elderly population does not receive individual pensions. Instead, they rely on social assistance from the Social Safety Net (SSN), a household-based poverty targeted programme, personal savings, intra-household financing, and/or other informal support mechanisms. The SSN programme provides support to households living below the poverty line who are not covered by the contributory pension system, including elderly individuals. Approximately 225,000 older persons benefit from such cash transfers.