Family pension in Colombia

The wave of reform to pension systems during the nineties increased the number of periods of contributions required to obtain a pension. In Colombia this parameter is 1,200 weeks. Over time, it has been seen that many individuals do not reach the threshold, and so a new "family pension" is being created. This facility will allow to add the periods of contributions of spouses who do not reach the 1,200 weeks separately, and thus obtain a pension. This solution solves partially a problem faced by individual retirement accounts as they were established in Latin America: a high parameter of periods of contribution results in that many workers have the right to withdraw all their savings at once when they reach the statutory retirement age. This goes against the goal of increasing the coverage of the pension system.