Between accredited protests and initiatives to modify its operation, the scheme of mortgage credits of the ISSSTE Housing Fund (fovissste) has been the subject of debate in recent months, since, of the 377,000 active financings, 30% is in past-due portfolio.
Faced with this problem, the Social Security and Housing commissions of the Chamber of Deputies promote an opinion, already approved and sent to the Senate, which reforms the law of the Institute of Security and Social Services of State Workers (ISSSTE), with the in order to improve the situation of the beneficiaries and the public housing agency.
“We have had to come to solve this disaster that was generated and that has affected, not only the beneficiaries, but the finances of the Fund itself,” said the deputy Lilia Aguilar, president of the Housing Commission of the Chamber of Deputies.
In an interview, the legislator explained the main changes sought with the initiative:
Excesses and debt of entities
During the six-year terms of Felipe Calderón and Enrique Peña Nieto, according to Aguilar, practices were carried out that doubled or tripled the debt of borrowers of the fovisssteamong them: the lack of payment of the dependencies of the State and the excesses.
The latter have been called calculation “errors”, that is to say that, for example, beneficiaries with a payment capacity of 100,000 pesos received credits up to 300,000 pesos, which made their credit become an unpayable debt for them.
On the other hand, non-payment by State institutions has generated interest and led some people to delinquency.
“Not all credits they are terribly wrong, but we are talking about about 140,000 in a situation of this nature, of errors that lead to the debt being doubled or tripled. The Reform gives us the possibility that, gradually, we can have a healthier portfolio,” said the deputy.
With this objective, a transient was added to the law that determines that “the worker may not be punished for something that cannot be attributed to him”, such as interest for non-payment by public stays and excesses.
Restructuring of UMAs to pesos
From the approval of the reform, it is expected that not only the new credits are generated in pesos, but those that have already been granted in Unit of Measurement and Update (UMA) are restructured and converted to pesos.
“This is like throwing a lifeline into the sea, because the UMAs are indexed to inflation and are affected by the increase in the minimum wage, which has an impact on the interest rate for debtors of the fovissste“Aguilar said.
In this sense, a gradual program was presented to update the financing, delinquent or not, in an orderly manner and “without bankrupting the fund”, for which it will be done in a period of three years, in agreement with the Fund and with the knowledge of the workers.
They will put a “cap” on discounts
According to the deputy, there are currently accredited retirees who have up to 90% of their pension discounted to pay their mortgage, a fact that she described as absurd.
That is why the initiative dictates that no more than 30% can be deducted from the base salary of active workers, nor more than 20% from retirees and pensioners.
debt settlement
Among the most recurring protests of the beneficiaries of the fovissstethere is the excessive accumulation of debt and the long payment terms, due to the fact that their credits nThey were originally granted under the Times Minimum Wages modality and later the balance of the debt was indexed to the update of the UMA.
As a strategy to help solve the calls credits “unpayable”, the reform intends that those financings that have been paid more than 1.9 times or for more than 30 years, will be immediately liquidated.
The Commissions of the Chamber of Deputies expect the Reform to be approved by the Senate of the Republic and by the executive branch, to be published in May of this year.
