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When Adrien Dupraz (60) arrives at Zurich airport after his holiday, he looks at his mobile phone and knows: the vote on a 13th pension has been accepted. The director of the Central Compensation Agency (ZAS) swallows. His first thought: “This is going to be a lot of work for us.” The second: “Okay, we’ll do it now. People are always right.”
Geneva. An apparently normal office building: gray carpet, large windows. The boss has his workplace on the top floor, but his chair is abandoned in the corner of the room – “I prefer to stand”.
Adrien Dupraz makes sure we all get our AHV. To understand this, a little digression is required: suppose I am retired and want to receive my pension. My compensation fund – for example my canton or my professional association – informs the ZAS how much money it needs to pay out my pension. The ZAS transfers the amount. This obviously applies not only to me, but to all AHV recipients. This is why, from this office building in Geneva, approximately five billion francs in AHV, IV and other pensions flow into the pockets of Swiss women every month via the compensation funds.
800 employees and several bee colonies
On the roof there are beehives that produce honey from the Central Compensation Fund. “The bees are our illegal workers,” Dupraz jokes. He has more than 800 human employees under his roof. In a conference room overlooking the Jet d’Eau, the director takes the time to explain the peculiarities of his virtually unknown authority.
First of all: the fact that his employees deal with millions every day does not give Dupraz a stomach ache. “We have never had a disruption, at most a delay.” And Dupraz is used to ‘astronomical amounts’: before becoming ZAS director, he was head of the Federal Compensation Fund – which is the one that pays out the AHV to federal employees, among other things – for 18 years.
Dupraz has been working in this field for almost 30 years. “Even though I only wanted to stay for a year!” The lawyer from Freiburg followed his wife to Geneva. “I had just completed my internship as a lawyer and said to myself: now you can take the first job that comes along in Geneva.”
AHV – “a service for everyone in the country”
The fact that he is now a pension expert until his own retirement seems to be due to his enthusiasm for the AHV. “It is simply an insurance policy based on solidarity. A service for all people in this country. We know that people depend on getting their money. That’s why everything has to work perfectly for us.”
Adrien Dupraz seems to find his job as top distributor of AHV not only interesting, but sometimes even funny. First example: “We once had a case where someone wanted to change his AHV number, which is actually not possible. He had three sixes in a row and was not comfortable with the devil’s number.” It is the ZAS itself that issues the AHV numbers. So it comes into contact with you when you are just born.
Second example: In the past, the AHV number contained a number that indicated whether someone was a man or a woman. “That led to problems for transgender people. Because of this and because the international standard was changed, this key figure no longer exists today.
This article was first published in “Schweizer Illustrierte”. You can find more exciting articles at www.schweizer-illustrierte.ch.
This article was first published in “Schweizer Illustrierte”. You can find more exciting articles at www.schweizer-illustrierte.ch.
Third example: “The fact that there are compensation funds for different professions is because entrepreneurs wanted to prevent the amount of wages they pay from becoming known. And because the cantons wanted to retain certain powers. That is why we still have a decentralized system today – with the ZAS as the central body.”
Now he has to pay out the 13th pension
And it is precisely this body that now faces a challenge: it must dismantle the central administration of the 13th pension. “We are only executors of the will,” says Dupraz, “but the execution must be correct. We would be happy if the 13th pension was paid monthly instead of once a year. This would make it easier for us to adjust our system.”
Let’s go into it a little deeper: The AHV premiums that all working people pay also end up in the ZAS account. The ZAS sends the money to Compenswiss (formerly AHV compensation fund). A three-digit million dollar amount – every day. Why? Because Compenswiss invests the money and ensures that there is always sufficient liquidity.
Payouts to 180 countries
“The amounts are impressive,” says Adrien Dupraz, “but only a small part of our employees is involved in this payment transaction.” The majority arrange other matters that are less automated. IV payments for example. Or the AHV payments for Swiss people abroad and people who worked in Switzerland and now live in 180 countries.
Even if Dupraz explains his business well, your head will spin at some point. Does he dream about the AHV at night? “I never have nightmares about missing money. But sometimes a good idea for the future comes to mind.”
AHV can always adapt
In general, the director is confident. It is true that the AHV lags behind the cost of living, he says. “But I believe that the AHV can always adapt to the population.”
In the Bible, God promises his people, “Yes, I will carry you until you are old and gray.” The Swiss people made a similar promise to themselves when they introduced the AHV in 1948. He always experiences that people are surprised that they do not receive more money as they get older – especially if they have paid a lot themselves. “But that is the idea of solidarity,” he says. “Would the AHV still be accepted today?” Dupraz wonders. “Luckily we already have them!”
Source:Blick
I am Liam Livingstone and I work in a news website. My main job is to write articles for the 24 Instant News. My specialty is covering politics and current affairs, which I’m passionate about. I have worked in this field for more than 5 years now and it’s been an amazing journey. With each passing day, my knowledge increases as well as my experience of the world we live in today.
