Pension contributions and the deduction from a civil servant’s salary
This article explains the deduction rate in Article 17 of Unified Pension Law No. 9 of 2014, who collects and deposits the sums in the State Employees’ Pension Fund, and when contributions are paid on a period added to service. It is not the page on paying to add service; that is on paying to add pensionable service.
The Fund and its functions are on the State Employees’ Pension Fund. What counts as service is on what counts as pensionable service?.
The rate in Article 17, and who deposits it
Article 17, First: monthly pension contributions of twenty-five per cent of the civil servant’s salary are deducted, as follows: ten per cent is borne by the employee, and fifteen per cent is borne by the public treasury. The base is the salary as defined in Article 1, Sixteenth: the pay received during pensionable service, without allowances. The rate is not, of itself, widened to allowances unless another text includes them in a particular case.
Article 17, Second: the Accounting Department at the Ministry of Finance deducts the employee’s share of the pension contributions monthly when civil servants’ salaries are funded, adds the government’s contribution, and deposits the total to the Fund’s account. This is the path of central funding of salaries.
Article 17, Third: departments and companies with self-funding are required to deduct the contributions set out in the First clause and to deposit them in the Fund’s account. If they are not paid, a fine of three per cent a month is imposed on the amount due, and the department or company is treated as having failed to pay if it refrains from payment for more than six months from the due date. The fine falls on the body that has refrained, and is not a description of a penalty on an employee from whose salary a deduction was made that was then not deposited. If a person’s share is deducted but not deposited, the effect on counting service is read with the file, because Article 1, Nineteenth, ties pensionable service to collection of the contributions, unless a special rule provides otherwise.
Article 7, Fourth, makes assessing and collecting contribution amounts one of the Fund’s tasks, together with paying rights and investing its assets. Collection is not a step outside the law, and payment after assessment is a separate path, explained on steps of a retirement transaction.
Contributions on periods that are added, and what is not collected
Not every period of service has contributions paid on it in the same way. Article 18, First, (d), counts accumulated ordinary leave in excess of one hundred and eighty days as pensionable service, and no contributions are collected on it. The period of advocacy practice, and what sits beside it in clause (e), is subject to collection of ten per cent a month of the salary on the date of appointment or joining, as on counting advocacy practice for pension purposes. Contract service in the state for a temporary employee after 9 April 2003 is subject to collection of that person’s share at ten per cent, as written in Article 18.
Article 19 deals with a person who asks for service to be added: a seconded employee who pays both his or her share and the borrowing body’s share; a person who adds state service to later private-sector service; a person who adds insured service to state service up to no more than half of actual state service, and bears the difference; a person who pays the contributions and the state’s share if they cannot otherwise be paid; and instalments over five years at one-quarter of the pension after adding three per cent. This payment is to add a period, not the monthly deduction under Article 17 during current service.
If a person who received a gratuity is reappointed, repayment of the gratuity and the contribution difference is in Article 23, on the basis of the salary on the date of the request to add the service, with instalments allowed. Article 25, First: if a civil servant dies in service for any reason, the service is counted for pension purposes as fifteen years if it was less than that, and the added period is exempt from contributions. Payment is not required on this period added by reason of death.
How the deduction relates to payment, and a dispute about it
Article 32 distinguishes which body bears the rights: the state budget for pensioners referred before 1 January 2008, for certain exceptions and for the end-of-service gratuity, and the Fund for the pensions of those referred after that date and for the retirement gratuity, the lump sum and the disability gratuity. What is collected today as contributions feeds the Fund that later pays according to this division, without meaning that every person from whom a deduction is made will be paid within a set time merely because of the deduction.
If there is a dispute about a deduction, or about a self-funded body’s failure to deposit, or about counting a period on which contributions were not collected and no rule exempts it, the Authority’s decision on that point may be objected to before the Pensioners’ Cases Audit Council within ninety days of actual or constructive notification, then the Council’s decision may be appealed before the Federal Court of Cassation within sixty days of notification, under Article 30.
The office follows a dispute about the deduction, the deposit, or payment of a difference when service is added.
| Issue | Rate or period | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Total monthly deduction from the salary | 25% | Article 17, First |
| Employee’s share | 10% | Article 17, First, (a) |
| Treasury’s share | 15% | Article 17, First, (b) |
| Fine for non-payment by self-funded bodies | 3% a month on the amount due, after a delay of more than 6 months | Article 17, Third |
| Instalments of contributions on an added period | Within 5 years, at one-quarter of the pension plus 3% | Article 19, Fifth |
Legal basis and sources
Frequently asked questions
Are contributions calculated on salary and allowances together?
Article 17, First, makes the salary the base. Article 1 defines the salary as being without allowances. Any other calculation is read from a special text, not from this article alone.
What if a deduction was made from my salary and my department did not deposit the amount in the Fund?
Article 17, Third, requires self-funded bodies to deposit the sums, and imposes a fine on a body that refrains for more than six months. The effect on counting service is read with the file and with the definition of pensionable service in Article 1.
Is every addition of service done by paying contributions?
No. Accumulated leave in excess of one hundred and eighty days is counted with no collection. The period added by reason of death under Article 25, First, is exempt from contributions. Other cases are read from Articles 18 and 19.