Last December, the Costa Rican Social Security Administration (CCSS, for its acronym in Spanish) made some changes to its pension system, including the extension of the time required to retire and the exclusion of men from the possibility of early retirement.

On 14 December, 2021, the Board of Directors of the CCSS, approved the amendment of articles 5, 23 and 24, and the repeal of final transitional provisions XII, XIII, XIV y XV of the Regulations for Disability, Old Age and Death Insurance.

Article 5 clarifies the types of pensions, i.e., ordinary old-age, proportional old-age, early old-age, early old-age based on the Employee's Protection Law and old-age for people with Down syndrome. With this amendment, early old-age pension excludes men.

The amendment also changes the amount of minimum time and contributions for disability and old age pensions or death of an active worker. Five years and sixty more contributions were added. The total time required for retirement is now twenty-five years and three hundred contributions.

These changes will become effective 24 months after their publication in the official gazette, i.e., as of 12 January, 2024.

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