on State Pension and State Allowance Disbursement in the Period from 2009 to 2012
adopted
on
17
September
2009
and
annotation
to
this
draft
law
http://titania.saeima.lv/LIVS/SaeimaLIVS.nsf/0/CDF73564B79BB4E3C225761F004B
E61E?OpenDocument, accessed on 1 December 2009).
It is acknowledged in the science of law: delay, unpredictability and inconsistency in
the exercise of state power prove that measures carried out and implemented by the
state have led up to violation of the principle of proportionality (see Harris D.,
O’Boyle M., and Warbrick C., Law of the European Convention on Human Rights, 2nd
ed., Oxford University Press, 2009, p. 676). The ECtHR has also stated that
“indecisiveness – no matter whether it has come about as a result of legislation or
administrative or institutional practice – is a factor to be considered in adjudicating an
action of the state. Indeed, in the case of dealing with a matter of common interest, the
public authorities have a duty to consider this matter in due and coordinated manner
for a reasonably long period of time” (Broniowski v. Poland, 2004-V; 43 EHRR 1,
paras. 151 and 184 GC).
Next, if the restriction established in Article 3, Paragraph One of the Disbursement
Law is not dealt with in a differentiated way, a situation may arise when the deduction
from person’s pension is higher than his or her income from work or self-employment
legal relations. The fact that such an action of the legislator does not comply with the
Constitution has already been stated in the earlier Constitutional Court judgments (see
Clause 3.1.3 of the Concluding Part of the Constitutional Court Judgment in Case No.
2001-12-01 passed on 19 March 2002).
Besides, a situation has arisen that Article 3, Paragraph One is not applicable to
specific groups of persons who have other income in addition to pension. As the
Cabinet of Ministers pointed out, in accordance with Article 6 of the Law on State
Social Insurance, persons who have reached the age that gives the right to receive the
State old-age pension, and who are owners of farms (fisheries), recipients or royalties,
natural persons who perform the management of an immovable property or acquire
income from a private subsidiary holding or a household plot, and who have registered
as economic activity income tax payers, shall not be persons subject to mandatory
social insurance. Similarly, the reduction of pension is not applied to self-employed
56
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