企業年金改革 多くの人が活用できる制度に

The Yomiuri Shimbun
Make corporate pension programs accessible for more employees
企業年金改革　多くの人が活用できる制度に

It is important to make many people eligible to participate in corporate pension programs, as a means of supplementing public pensions.
　公的年金を補完する手段として、多くの人が企業年金を活用できるようにすることが重要だ。

A bill to reform the corporate pension system is under deliberation at the House of Representatives. The government aims to get the bill passed into law during the current Diet session.
　企業年金改革関連法案が、衆院で審議されている。政府は、今国会での成立を目指している。

The central pillar of the bill is to review the defined contribution pension system, in which subscribers choose how their pension premiums should be managed, with the amount of their pension benefits to be determined by the results.
　法案の柱は、加入者本人が掛け金の運用方法を選び、その結果で年金額が決まる確定拠出年金制度の見直しである。

The bill calls for establishing “simplified defined contribution pension plans,” with the establishment procedures to be simplified so as to make it easier for even small and midsize corporations to introduce them for their employees.
　中小企業でも導入しやすくするため、設立手続きなどを簡素化した「簡易型」を創設する。

The bill also envisages creating a system to support the subscription of more people, by creating “individual-type defined contribution pension plans” for employees of companies unable to have such plans on their own and for self-employed people. Under this system, corporations, if only small and midsized firms, can add their contributions to their employees’ pension premiums.
　自前で制度を持てない会社の社員や自営業者向けの「個人型」についても、加入を後押しする仕組みを新設する。中小企業に限り、会社が社員の掛け金に加算できるようにする。

A corporate pension plan is a program to be established by each corporation voluntarily in addition to the kosei nenkin corporate employees pension scheme, part of the nation’s public pension system.
　企業年金は、公的年金である厚生年金の上乗せとして、会社ごとに任意で設ける制度だ。

As the level of benefits paid under the public pension system declines against the backdrop of a low birthrate and a graying population, the role of corporate pension plans is growing.
少子高齢化で公的年金の給付水準が下がる中、その役割は高まっている。

It is appropriate for the corporate pension plan to be utilized by workers other than only those at big companies.
　大企業の社員以外にも、普及を促す狙いは適切である。

At present, among subscribers to the kosei nenkin scheme, fewer than 40 percent also participate in corporate pension programs. And the ratio of companies that have introduced corporate pension programs is declining. Among smaller firms, with 30 to 99 employees, only 18.6 percent have introduced such programs.
　現在、厚生年金の加入者のうち、企業年金に入っている人は４割に満たない。企業年金を導入している会社の割合は減少傾向にある。社員３０～９９人の中小企業では１８・６％にとどまる。

Major programs dissolving

On top of this, kosei nenkin kikin (corporate employees’ pension funds), which once were the leading corporate pension programs, are to be dissolved, with certain exceptions, by March 2019. Faced with management difficulty following the collapse of the bubble economy, one corporate employees’ pension fund after another became unable to stay afloat. As leading companies have pulled out of their schemes swiftly, most of the pension funds still operating are ones formed by smaller firms.
　しかも、代表的な企業年金だった厚生年金基金は、一部を除き２０１９年３月までに解散される。バブル崩壊後の運用難で、存続不能の基金が続出したためだ。大企業は早々に撤退し、残るのは中小企業で作る基金がほとんどだ。

It is an open question whether the reform will be sufficient to help those who will no longer be covered by corporate employees’ pension funds after they are dissolved. It is necessary to try one way after another to promote the spread of the corporate pension plans envisaged by the bill, while assessing the status of the introduction of schemes such as “simplified defined contribution pension plans.”
　基金廃止後の受け皿として、今回の改革が十分に機能するかどうかは不透明だ。「簡易型」の導入状況などを見極め、普及が進むよう工夫を重ねる必要がある。

Also incorporated in the bill is an expansion of the scope of people eligible to participate in “individual-type defined contribution pension plans,” by making full-time homemakers and public-service workers also eligible. In effect, anyone will be able to participate in defined contribution pension schemes.
　法案には、「個人型」の対象を専業主婦や公務員に拡大することも盛り込まれた。事実上、誰でも加入できるようになる。

As working styles have diversified, voluntary resignations and job-switching have become common. The number of nonregular workers who are not eligible to participate in corporate pension plans has also increased.
　働き方が多様化し、離職や転職が一般化した。企業年金に入れない非正規労働者も増えた。

We can understand the course of action to encourage people’s self-help efforts for their post-retirement years, by providing everyone with a means of supplementing the roles of public pensions.
すべての人に公的年金の補完手段を提供し、老後へ向けた自助努力を促す方向性は理解できる。

Open to question is the idea of making even homemakers eligible to participate in “individual-type defined contribution pension plans,” which offer preferential tax treatment, while keeping in place the system of “Category III insured,” under which a dependent spouse of a company or government employee is eligible for basic pension benefits without paying pension premiums themselves. Will the envisaged plan give them excessive preferential treatment?
　疑問なのは、専業主婦が保険料の負担なしに基礎年金を受け取れる「第３号被保険者」制度を残したまま、税制上の優遇措置がある個人型への加入も認めることだ。過剰な優遇にならないか。

Regarding nonregular workers, it is also vital to attempt to increase pension benefits for them, by expanding the scope of nonregular workers eligible to participate in the kosei nenkin scheme.
　非正規労働者については、厚生年金への加入拡大で、年金額の充実を図る視点も欠かせない。

It is important to discuss income security for people in their old age within the framework of the whole pension system.
　年金制度全体の枠組みの中で、老後の所得保障のあり方を検討することが大切である。

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Aug. 27, 2015)Speech