The government aims to bring a bill to reform pensions before cabinet by the end of 2025, Labour Minister Yiannis Panayiotou said on Monday.

Speaking after a meeting with the labour advisory board, he said there will now be a “wider dialogue” on the matter, including input from political parties and society at large.

He said that the bill will be brought before cabinet by the end of 2025 with the aim of presenting it to parliament in early 2026.

The government has the political will to adhere to these timetables and implement pension reform, and we expect that with the constructive cooperation of all involved, that goal will be achieved in the interest of pensioners today and the next generation of pensioners to come,” he said.

He added that there was a positive mood for constructive cooperation on all sides, and said the government will rely on the input of various stakeholders to the maximum extent possible.

“Pension reform is one of the government’s priorities and is a social necessity which requires collective action and responsibility,” he said.

On the matter of the substance of the reforms, he said the government’s aim is to “strengthen the adequacy of pensions” paid by the social insurance fund through “rationalisations” of the fund’s investment policy and the utilisation of other means to support the pension budget.

Those other means include the support of the social insurance fund through welfare funds and the possibility of private insurance.

He said this will also entail the “development of a culture of insurance” for those planning to retire early and a push for people working without declaring their earnings to the tax office to do so, to shore up the government’s coffers in terms of social insurance contributions.

Additionally, he said, reforms to pensions will also entail reforms to the technological infrastructure.

Earlier reports suggested that, under the envisioned pension reform, the age of retirement would not change.

As far as investment policy goes, the intention is to invest a higher percentage of the reserves of the Social Insurance Fund in the private sector.

Data for 2022 show that total contributions to the Social Insurance Fund came from 550,000 persons – of whom 345,000 Cypriots, 100,000 EU nationals, and 110,000 non-EU nationals.