El Salvador's pension system in crisis: only one in three older adults receives a pension and 69% cannot make ends meet

An elderly couple counts their monthly money on the kitchen table in their home. (Illustrative Image Infobae)Eight out of ten elderly people living without a pension in El Salvador arrived at that situation with no room for maneuver: the pension system covers only 32.8% of those who have surpassed retirement age, according to a survey by the University Institute of Public Opinion (Iudop) of the José Simeón Cañas Central American University, a Salvadoran Jesuit academic center. The remaining 67.2% receives no monthly payment despite having reached the legal retirement age. The figure adds to a diagnosis that various economists and organizations have been repeating in 2026: the Salvadoran pension system is at a critical point and the Government has already postponed until 2027 the structural reform promised to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the multilateral lending organization. The Iudop study, conducted between April 27 and May 27 with 453 valid surveys and a margin of error of 4.60%, confirms that even receiving a pension does not guarantee well-being. 68.9% of pensioners consider that the amount they receive is not enough to cover their basic needs. Only 31.1% think otherwise. A survey by the UCA's Iudop indicates that in El Salvador only 32.8% of people of retirement age receive a pension and 68.9% state that the amount does not cover their basic needs. (Illustrative Image Infobae)Estela Campos, an 84-year-old Salvadoran, is the living example of this. Mother of six children, she worked at a private clinic for more than 35 years and retired 30 years ago. The amount she receives month to month is half of what, according to the UCA survey, she would need to survive: barely 486 dollars. Of this, she uses more than between 90 and 100 to pay for her medications since she is hypertensive and takes at least three pills a day; the rest goes to food and payment for services, doctors, neighborhood security, and medical tests. She receives help from her daughters to cope with day-to-day expenses, but she says that at times she must perform true acrobatics to make it to the end of the month. She sums up her situation in one word: Unsustainable. According to the pensioners themselves consulted by the survey, around USD 852 per month would be needed to maintain a good standard of living, a figure that exceeds the system's usual amounts. The wrinkled hands of an elderly man rest on a wooden table with bruises and visible marks on the knuckles. (Illustrative Image Infobae)The figure coincides with other recent surveys. According to the 2025 Multiple Purpose Household Survey, only 38.8% of the Salvadoran population is covered by some social security system, whether the AFPs or the Salvadoran Social Security Institute. The consequence translates to the street: almost four out of ten adults over 60 remain economically active, mostly through street vending or small informal businesses. Among those who do receive a pension in El Salvador, six out of ten collect it for their own work or retirement, while 31.4% corresponds to a survivor's pension inherited after the death of another person, and 5.8% is for disability, according to Iudop. Data from the Central Reserve Bank reveal surprising changes in the flow of remittances. Variations in the number of people, multimillion-dollar figures, and a social impact that redefines the Salvadoran family economy. That proportion of inherited pensions reveals that a good part of the pensioned population depends on someone else's benefit and not on their own contribution history. Indebtedness is frequent even among those who have a guaranteed monthly income. 63.7% of pensioners had outstanding debts at the time of the survey, compared to 36.3% who had none. A line of elderly Salvadorans waits patiently in front of a window where pension payments are processed. (Illustrative Image Infobae)Of that indebted group, half (50.3%) said their pension helped them obtain the loan or credit. The monthly payment thus functions more as financial backing than as direct consumption income. The study also identified an additional burden on this population: 57.7% of elderly people with their own income, whether from work or a pension, economically support other people. Only 42.3% have no dependents. For a large part of the Salvadoran elderly population, income is not destined solely for their own subsistence but must be shared within the household. 55.1% of people of retirement age noticed some positive change after stopping working, compared to 36.2% who perceived none. The most mentioned were reduced stress (18.7%), more time for family or personal activities (17.2%), and improvements in health or vitality (12.6%). Only 10.8% cited greater economic solvency. An elderly man sits alone in his home, reflecting social isolation in old age. (Illustrative Image Infobae)The negative changes, however, were more frequent: 66.9% identified some, compared to 32.2% who noticed none. The dominant problem, with 70.7% of mentions, was fatigue, physical deterioration, and the illnesses of aging. Far behind appeared age discrimination in the workplace (8.4%) and boredom or loneliness (7.2%). The Iudop survey shows widespread support for the State's role in protecting old age. 92.8% agree with paying food allowances to elderly people who live alone, and 92.4% support maintaining nursing homes or homes for the elderly funded by taxes. 84.4% support giving money to elderly people without a pension or income of their own, and disagreement with these measures does not exceed 12% in any case. Elderly people walk around University Plaza in the Historic Center of San Salvador. (Infobae Central America/Emerson Del Cid)Support also extends to those who worked under conditions that make contributing difficult: 75.3% agree with granting pensions to people who worked in the informal sector, and 78% to those who dedicated themselves exclusively to homemaking. Opinion is divided, with a slight majority against (50.1%), when it comes to people who neither worked nor carried out other activities. That social consensus contrasts with the recent trend of state assistance programs. The Universal Basic Pension, which delivers USD 50 monthly to elderly people over 70 in situations of poverty, lost 1,505 beneficiaries in the last year and went from 30,034 to 28,529 people covered, according to the report of activities of the Ministry of Local Development for the 2025-2026 period. The program has accumulated a sustained decline since 2019, when it served almost 38 thousand people. The same Iudop survey also revealed strong citizen rejection of the adjustments the Government is considering ahead of the 2027 reform: 83.5% oppose raising the minimum retirement age by five years, currently set at 60 for men and 55 for women, and 67.9% reject an increase in the contribution rate that the AFPs deduct from wages. The gap between what the Salvadoran population expects from the system and what the fiscal adjustment agreed with the IMF seems to require keeps the future of millions of future pensioners in suspense.