Pension Inclusion Moratorium — Closing Argentina's Old-Age Care-Work Pension Gap

Argentina's pension system historically required 30+ years of registered contributions, a threshold most women could not meet due to informal or unpaid domestic/care work. From 2004-05 (extended 2014, 2019), the Moratoria Previsional let people past retirement age 'declare' outstanding contribution debt and repay it against future pensions, converting decades of unpaid work into eligibility; a complementary non-contributory scheme (PUAM) was created in 2016 for those who did not use the moratorium.

A 2024 academic review found 73% of the ~2.7 million first-wave (2004-05) beneficiaries were women, rising to 86% in the second wave (2010); a San Juan province case study found pension coverage of over-65s rose from 60.75% (2001) to 91% (2010). A 2022 World Bank report estimated 2020 elderly poverty at ~11%, versus a counterfactual of ~67.8% without the transfers, and found only 9.9% of women aged 60-64 were independently pension-eligible without the scheme.

The World Bank report itself criticises the moratorium's 'horizontal inequity' (full pensions regardless of actual contribution history) and fiscal cost (~11.8% of GDP on pensions). Gender equity was a byproduct rather than a designed goal — women had to register as fictitious 'self-employed workers' with backdated contributions rather than being recognised directly for care work. The moratorium law expired in March 2025 and has not been renewed; Amnesty International has warned older people, especially women and informal workers, risk losing full-pension access, since the PUAM fallback pays only 80% of the minimum pension.