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The AHV should receive four billion francs from the profit distribution from the Swiss National Bank, demands union confederation boss Pierre-Yves Maillard.
The AHV has a money problem. Some want to fix it with an increase in the retirement age, others with outside money.
Pierre-Yves Maillard, President of the Swiss Trade Union Confederation (SGB), is one of the latter and knows where the money is to come from: a popular initiative by the SGB is intended to funnel part of the Swiss National Bank’s profits directly into the AHV.
Maillard wants to achieve redistribution
“The financing problem of the AHV can be solved,” Maillard explains to Radio SRF’s “Samstagsrundschau”. With average pensions of just over 3,000 francs and planned reductions in occupational pensions (BVG), however, a reduction in benefits is impossible.
According to the “National Bank profits for a strong AHV” initiative launched by the SGB on Friday, in addition to the federal government and the cantons, four billion francs a year from the profits of the Swiss National Bank (SNB) are to be used to finance the AHV.
Maillard is convinced that the money ultimately belongs to the population. “It is paradoxical when bourgeois parties first want to raise the retirement age for women and then for everyone, the BVG pensions are falling and at the same time the National Bank has distribution reserves of 100 billion francs.”
A pensioner who retires has 20 percent less BVG pension today than 15 years ago.
Pensioners should not become poor, says the SP National Council. «A pensioner who retires has 20 percent less BVG pension than 15 years ago with the same capital. And that in a country that has more wealth than ever before – for example in the National Bank.” A redistribution is needed here, Maillard demands.
If equal pay and childcare are guaranteed, one could at best think about raising the retirement age for women. According to Maillard, the current distribution of six billion francs to the federal government and the cantons should remain untouched.
Part of the SNB profits automatically included in the AHV?
Last year, the SNB made a profit of around CHF 26 billion. Maillard demands that this money also has to be distributed at some point.
The SGB popular initiative is aimed at an amendment to the constitution: If the National Bank has high balance sheet profits, parts of it should automatically be credited to the AHV compensation fund.
According to the initiators, the National Bank could transfer two to four billion francs a year to the AHV. The trade union confederation assumes that the SNB could potentially pay out profits of eight to ten billion Swiss francs a year.