Insurance Association of Turkey, (TSB) issued a statement emphasizing the advantages of state subsidy application in the Individual Pension System (BES). The statement which reminds that state subsidy is 25% for all contribution payments (regular or bulk) made in BES, states that the system is therefore much more profitable.

Atilla Benli, President of the Insurance Association of Turkey, underlined that Individual Pension System is very important for individual savings.

“BES carries a great importance in making people gain the habit of saving. Therefore, we have conducted many successful projects to encourage people to participate in the system. One of the most important one of those incentives is undoubtedly the state subsidy application which was launched in 2013. The state makes an additional contribution for every participant at the rate of 25% of the amount of the contribution they pay. I believe that this application has a great role in bringing the system to its current size. And I would like to remind our citizens to save more, and tell them to remain in the system to benefit from the maximum amount of state subsidy payments.” 

We have participants who continue to stay in BES despite becoming eligible to retire

Atilla Benli reminded that participants needed to stay in the system for at least 10 years and be older than 56 to become eligible to retire from BES, and stated that nearly 132 thousand people had so far retired from the system which left 17 years behind. He underlined that BES was a great success story. “When we look closely, we see that some participants continue to stay in the system despite becoming eligible to retire from the system. According to the statistics by the Pension Monitoring Center, nearly 107 thousand participants have preferred to stay in the system despite becoming eligible to retire. This is a significant proof of the trust in the system. 51 thousand participants between 56-59, 48 thousand participants between 60-69, and 8 thousand participants over 70 are continuing to make savings in BES despite being able to retire at the moment,” he stated.  

Participants who retired in 2019 earned 900 million TL in total

Benli said that 18 thousand 262 participants gained the right to retire from the system during the first 9 months of 2020, adding that 24 thousand 131 people retired and left the system by withdrawing their entire savings in 2019. “Participants who retired from the system in 2019 had paid 1.6 billion TL in contributions, and withdrew 2.5 billion TL while retiring. This shows how profitable the system is.”

According to the statistics announced by Pension Monitoring Center on 13 November 2020, total number of participants in BES and Auto-Enrollment (OKS) has nearly reached 12.6 million, and total fund size has reached 165.7 billion TL. Total size of state subsidy contributions has reached 21.2 billion TL.

It is possible to benefit from higher state subsidy through additional payments

State subsidy is the amount paid by the state at the rate of 25% of the amount of the contribution you pay. The upper limit of the state subsidy payments is 25% of the annual gross minimum wage, which equals to 8 thousand 829 TL as of 2020. Participants wishing to benefit from maximum state subsidy payment can learn their remaining limits from their pension companies and make additional contribution payments in the last month of the year.

Participants who remain in the system for at least 3 years can withdraw 15% of their state subsidy funds, those who remain for 6 years can withdraw 35%, those who remain for at least 10 years can withdraw 60%, and participants who turn 57 and are entitled to retire from the system become entitled to withdraw 100% of their state subsidy funds.