Photo: yuz.uz
Uzbekistan is seriously considering raising the minimum retirement age. A working group studying the issue has prepared two reform scenarios, Murodbek Atadzhanov, executive director of the country’s off-budget Pension Fund under the Ministry of Economy and Finance, told Spot.uz.
Under both scenarios, the retirement age would gradually increase to 63 for men (from the current 60) and 58 for women (from 55).
The first option envisions raising the retirement age by six months each year, which would bring the reform to completion in six years. The second, described by Atadzhanov as a softer approach, calls for raising the age by three months per year, meaning it would take 12 years to reach the target levels.
Atadzhanov noted that in many countries the minimum retirement age exceeds 65, while Uzbekistan has not changed its threshold for 32 years, making it the last to implement such a reform in the region. He also pointed to rising life expectancy: according to the Health Ministry, it now stands at 75 years. Two decades ago, citizens lived an average of 8–9 years after retirement, while today that figure has grown to 12.5 years for men and 20 years for women.
The Pension Fund has not yet made a final decision. Authorities plan to launch a social platform to collect public feedback over the course of a month before revising the proposals and submitting a draft reform package for public consideration.
The broader pension reform concept also envisions the creation of private pension funds. However, Atadzhanov stressed that until 2027–28, officials will focus only on drafting a regulatory framework, with the first such funds not expected before 2030. “This is a very complex issue. Without a solid legal foundation, someone could collect the money and disappear, and we would never recover it,” he cautioned.
Calls for pension reform in Uzbekistan have been ongoing for several years. Earlier this year, the International Monetary Fund recommended gradually raising the retirement age, calculating pensions based on average lifetime earnings, and automatically indexing payments to inflation. In 2024, the government issued a decree creating a working group tasked with preparing a reform concept, which was due to be presented to the president by September 2025.
