Christian Democratic Party (DC) Deputy Patricio Pinilla expressed openness to a new withdrawal of 10% of pension funds, according to T13. The lawmaker said the measure "is viable today" if the government does not put forward more concrete proposals to tackle unemployment.
Pinilla thus added his support to an idea being studied by the Party of the People (PDG) caucus. According to T13, the party is considering the withdrawal as an alternative in response to the country's labor market situation.
The deputy based his position on the lack of jobs. "Almost a million people in Chile are looking for work and cannot find it," he said. He added that the government's measures have been "clearly insufficient."
According to Pinilla, his political group requested a larger hiring subsidy and did not receive it. He also called for accelerating public investment, although he maintained that this measure "is not enough either."
Within the PDG, Deputy Zandra Parisi said on Tuesday that the party had met with groups interested in accessing 10% of their savings. However, she stressed that the proposal "must be studied seriously" and that there are different mechanisms.
Her fellow caucus member Patricio Briones confirmed that they are reviewing the technical, political and economic feasibility of a proposal aimed at unemployed people. The source does not specify amounts, timelines or a concrete legal text.
The discussion comes amid high unemployment figures. According to the National Statistics Institute (INE), unemployment reached 9.6% in the June-August quarter of 2026. Those figures intensified the debate over how to encourage hiring.
The government rejects the idea. Labor Minister Tomás Rau recalled the effects of previous withdrawals. "History has taught us that pension withdrawals were not good policy," he said.
Rau added that those withdrawals "generated a lot of inflation" and "depleted pension funds." Unemployed people would gain immediate liquidity from a new withdrawal. According to the government, their future pensions would bear the cost.
No bill has been introduced so far. The next step depends on the PDG completing its assessment and deciding whether to submit a formal initiative to the Chamber of Deputies.
