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3. Pension Reform Stalled: 13 Decrees Blocking Lebanon’s Social Protection Law

Thirteen. That is the number of implementing decrees still pending to activate the pension and social protection law passed in 2023. Without them, the long-awaited reform remains on hold.

The new system was meant to gradually replace the decades-old end-of-service indemnity scheme. So far, only one decree has been partially addressed, the one concerning the appointment of labor market entities meant to sit on the CNSS Board of Directors. While these entities have been identified, their representatives are still missing, even though the June 2024 deadline has already passed.

The transition from one system to another faces major structural, financial, and institutional hurdles. A comprehensive actuarial study is needed, along with the reconstruction of individual CNSS accounts. This complex and costly process would impose an estimated 3 billion dollars in compensatory payments on employers.

The biggest challenge, however, remains the CNSS’s fragile financial health. Its end-of-service branch is depleted: the fund’s assets have dropped from 8 billion dollars in 2018 to less than 1 billion in 2025, a collapse of nearly 87.5 percent caused by years of mismanagement and waste.

On top of that come chronic administrative failures: no CNSS budget since 2017, unaudited accounts since 2010, outdated computer systems dating back to 2003, and poor contribution collection. Together, these obstacles continue to block a reform that is essential for the social protection of Lebanese citizens.