Colombia’s sweeping pension overhaul, enacted through Law 2381 of 2024, has raised a key question for millions of workers: who gets to keep the benefits of the previous pension system? The law includes a “transition regime” that allows certain contributors to remain under the rules of the 1993 pension law (Law 100) rather than switch entirely to the new framework.
According to Article 75 of the new law, the deciding factor is the number of weeks a person had already contributed to the pension system by the time the reform took effect. Women who had accumulated at least 750 weeks of contributions—roughly 14 years of payments—qualify for the transition regime. For men, the threshold is 900 weeks, or about 17 years.
Those who meet these minimums will continue to have their pensions calculated and managed under the older 1993 rules, even as the broader population moves into the new pension structure. Workers who fall short of the threshold will be subject to the updated system created by the 2024 reform.
The change has generated confusion among workers trying to determine their own status, especially amid related rulings from Colombia’s Constitutional Court affecting fund transfers. Readers interested in the full breakdown of eligibility criteria can consult the original report from El Tiempo.