Since the start of the pandemic, INPS spent 44,5 billion euros on income support measures, which reached a total of 15,1 million citizens. Only for the layoffs, expenses rose from 1,4 billion euros in 2019 to 19 billion in 2020: an increase of more than 1000%. The beneficiaries, which in 2019 were just over 620 thousand, exceeded 6,7 million last year, with an average benefit of 2.788 euros, including notional charges. The data is contained in the Institute's annual report presented to Parliament.
BLOCKING OF LICENSES
The document also shows that the blocking of layoffs from March 2020 to February 2021 it saved around 330 jobs, over two-thirds attributable to small businesses (up to 15 employees). In the 24 months before the pandemic, the average annual number of layoffs, net of disciplinary ones, was 560.
Now the problem is to understand "how this balance will evolve following the removal of the block on layoffs - continues INPS - It should be borne in mind that in the years preceding the pandemic, layoffs of an economic nature exceeded half a million a year, however positive hiring dynamics”.
PENSIONS
In terms of pensions, the president of the Institute launches an alarm: "In relation to the macroeconomic context - explains Pasquale Tridico - the dynamics of pension expenditure is characterized by a slowdown in growth starting from 2014. However, the ratio between the number of pensioners and employed persons remains on a level that is among the highest in the European context. Furthermore, the ratio between the total amount of pensions, in nominal terms, and the number of employed people grew by 70% between 2001 and 2020”.
Tridico also reiterates that Italian pension expenditure includes a welfare component, the identification of which "can significantly change the analysis and positioning in comparison with other European countries".
Italian pensioners as at 31 December 2020 amounted to approximately 16 million, of which 7,7 men and 8,3 women. Between 2012 and 2020, the difference between male and female pension income increased both for seniority benefits (from 400 to 550 euros) and for old age benefits (from 200 to 250 euros).
EMPLOYMENT INCOME
As for the labor income, the average annual salary of employees fell from 24.140 euros in 2019 to 23.091 euros in 2020 (-4,3%) due to the drop in weeks worked.
According to the Institute, this contrasts with what happened instead to the average of private sector employees who worked full time for the entire year: in this case wages increased from 32.668 to 36.448 euros (+11,6%). These two data "are indicative of a tendency to diverge within dependent work, as a consequence of growing precariousness".
THEsocial security taxable it fell by around 33 billion, going from 598 billion in 2019 to 564 billion in 2020 (-5,6%). In absolute value, the most significant contraction was that of private employees (from 369 to 340 billion, equal to -7,9%), while for the self-employed the decrease was equal to -6%.
