How the government will cook the pensions

The analysis of the columnist Giuliano Cazzola

Among the many clichés that haunt the debate on pension reform there is one that concerns the trade unions , which would be obsessed with this problem for a very trivial reason: most of their members, if not the majority, are retired. . As we will see, this is an untrue inference: the heart of the trade unions beats for retirees or to facilitate retirement as much as possible and as soon as possible, regardless of demographic trends that hold together two phenomena with devastating effects: the accelerated aging of people and the denatality. 

Those who have crossed the coveted threshold – especially if they receive a more than decent pension – fall into the trap of social envy and are often referred to as having to pay the penalty for having had a more fortunate working life than others. Thus solidarity contributions flow seamlessly onto higher pensions, which have become increasingly heavy from symbolic. But the so-called golden pensions are few, they bear a substantial share of the income tax of pensioners. Therefore, if new income from pensions is needed, it is necessary to shoot in the pile and target an institution that "pays" the bill immediately (while the interventions on the requirements take a year to reach full capacity): the automatic revaluation at the cost of living, which is safeguarded until at the level of medium-low treatments (usually up to 1,500 gross monthly payments) and remodeled or suspended for a certain period of time on those of greater amount. It is the safest and fastest way to reduce retirement spending and earn income. 

Obviously, the donkey always falls into the usual point: only temporary interventions are allowed by the Consulta since a measure that would permanently protect only the automatic revaluation of low pensions would be vitiated by illegitimacy. An equalization of an ordinary nature is envisaged (and this is subject to tampering and exceptions): the pension is revalued by bands; 100% of inflation up to an amount equal to three times the minimum, 90% three to five times; 75% on the excess shares. But this "scale" has undergone many variations over time. In order not to make it too long, we report the changes introduced in 2019 which expire at the end of the year, when the ordinary structure of the three bands should return into force.

The new brackets:

• 97% between three and four times the minimum, from 1,522 to 2,029 euros,
• 77% from four to five times the minimum, up to 2,537 euros,
• 52% between five and six times the minimum, up to € 3,042,
• 47% between six and eight times the minimum, up to 4059 euros,
• 45% up to € 4,566 (nine times the minimum),
• 40% for higher amounts.

WITHOUT CORRECTIVES, YOU ARE BACK TO THE THREE "PRODI SCAGLIONI"

As Valentina Conte recalled in La Repubblica, the knots are coming to a head. If in the end the inflation rate for 2021 will be 1.5% – as estimated by Nadef , the economic and financial document just updated by the government – a figure of around 4 billion should end up in maneuver to adjust pensions in 2022 And above all a method to distribute them, given that the three-year one approved by the first Conte government (M5S-Lega) in 2019 expires on December 31st. From 1 January 2022, without corrective measures, we return to the three “Prodi brackets”, much more convenient for pensioners. Less for public accounts. Leaving everything as it is – the 7 yellow-green bands that later became 6 – would cost "only" 3.9 billion, returning to Prodi 4.4 billion: half a billion difference, not a little. Then, at the end of the year, one of the justicialist measures always launched by Count 1 will also expire: the solidarity contribution on higher pensions (repeated more severely after the expiry of the previous one, which for the Council had to be exceptional). In this circumstance, the Court preferred to turn a blind eye because no one now feels he is being pointed to public fury as a defender of golden pensions, even if he is the guardian of the Constitution. However, it has reduced the planned cut from five to three years. And the three years also expire on December 31st. What will the government do ?

Article published on ilsussidiario.net

This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/come-il-governo-cucinera-le-pensioni/ on Sat, 09 Oct 2021 06:06:01 +0000.