St. John’s, Antigua – Starting today, the official retirement age under the Social Security system is now 65, marking the end of early retirement options introduced with the 2016 amendments to the Social Security Act.

According to David Matthias, Director of the Social Security Board, “everyone must attain the age 65 in order to make an application’. He explained that the gradual shift over the past decade was necessary to give people time to adapt. “We gave people a very long time—10 years is a significant period to adjust your mind from 60 to 65,” he said.

As of December 31, 2024, the Social Security system also completed its planned adjustments to contribution rates, now capped at 16% for private-sector workers and 15% for public-sector employees. This means an increase of 1/2 per cent for pirate and public sector workers. The contribution for self-employed remains at 10%.

Matthias emphasized that these changes were vital to the system’s sustainability and recent reforms have already yielded positive results. He noted that the system generated a small surplus in 2024 for the first time in years. However, he cautioned that future adjustments, such as linking pensions to inflation or increasing the minimum pension, would need careful planning.

“One idea we’re considering is indexing pensions to inflation to ensure they maintain their real value and purchasing power over time,” Matthias said. “This requires extensive work, including actuarial evaluations to determine the contribution rates necessary to support indexing.”

While these measures are promising, Matthias warned they could reduce the current surplus. “Now, the surplus is going to disappear as you introduce the index, as you adjust the minimum pension, as you do all of those things, the surplus is going to get smaller and smaller. So the emphasis then has to be on the management of our investments to bring about the returns needed to keep us in a position where we continue to make timely payments, he explained.

Despite these challenges, Matthias pointed to the improved efficiency of the system as a significant benefit. “One of the things that persons are seeing the benefit of right now is the time in which we’ve been able to make payments because we’re at a place where we are generating [sufficient contributions],” he added.