Panama's Mixed System has a surplus of more than 6 billion dollars, while the SEBD program faces a deficit. Although the country has one of the highest per capita economic incomes in the Latin American region, it only allocates 0.3% of GDP to pensions, which is a rather low figure. According to an ILO study cited by Professor Argote, implementing a universal old-age pension program would cost only between 1% and 1.2% of GDP.
The parametric measures announced by the President of the Republic and the director of the Social Security Fund (CSS) have been rejected as evasive and considered to offload the social security crisis onto the poorest and workers, offering insufficient pensions in return.
The SEBD, Exclusive Defined Benefit System, was designed as a closed system, which has left workers who entered it at a disadvantage. They currently face receiving significantly lower pensions than those received by retired seniors, which is perceived as an injustice.
The Solidarity Pension System of the CSS, a product of Law 51 of 2005, has been criticized for its design and management. Its division into two subsystems, SEBD and Mixed System, has been pointed out as a complicating factor in the current crisis situation. Over the last fifteen years, different governments have failed to comply with legal provisions allowing the management of the CSS not to deposit the corresponding part of the Mixed System into the solidarity program, which has generated seemingly fictitious funds, according to an ILO report cited by Felipe Argote.
