ivy6 said...
Ooh, that sounds both good and bad. If you are compulsorily retired, does that mean that you can never go back to work, even if you do get better?
Does the "disease assistance" give you enough money to live on each week, or does it keep people well and truly below the poverty line?
Thanks so much for sharing that information. It's really interesting!
Here (Australia) people often start on unemployment benefits and then get bumped over to a disability pension. That's what happened with me, anyway. The disability pension pays a teeny bit more per week than the unemployment benefit, and the big bonus is that disabled people are not placed under mutual obligation, ie compelled to work or volunteer or study a certain number of hours per week, as the unemployed people are.
There is a lot of criticism of the disability pension at the moment. For one thing, it is NOT enough to live on and has not been increased despite inflation, and for another, there are too many people on it. There are some suggestions that long-term unemployed people who are close to retirement age are being transferred to the disability pension, because then they won't be registered as unemployed. This reduces unemployment figures, and, in turn, makes the government look good.
I'm not an expert so there may be some inaccuracies in what I've just said. It's my understanding of how things work, anyway.
I.
No, no, Whenever you feel able to get back to work again you can do, no problem. Here in Brazil to retire by age men must work and contribute to the social security for 35 years and women 30 years, while you're in the "disease assistance" you are not contributing because you are sick but time is still counting so you do not loose.
about the money, well you see, as they pick every month 11% of your salary, that is the base they will use to pay you, they do a calc using your last 48 salaries corrected by the % inflation, most of times it is close or even more than what you are used to receive + the 13th salary proportional(13th is a plus that we receive in Dec) all this free of taxes, so if you contribute little will receive less, of course there is a ceiling, I do not know what it is. Here in Brazil we have the culture to receive at the end or the beggining of the month not by week.
Here in Brazil there is a Law that when someone is close to retire, like 2 years, that person can not be fired. Bit I understand what you mean, so those people won't count as unemployed, it is a good government marketing move!