Hope opens up for those who collect medium-low pensions: the 45% ceiling on the revaluation of checks could disappear from the financial manoeuvre. The decree was only published yesterday in the Official Gazette, but it seems that the Government is already working on an ad hoc amendment on the subject of social security. The idea would be to offload the entire burden of the provision (one billion euros in the two-year period 2012-2013) onto the highest pension bracket, guaranteeing 100% revaluation for pensions up to 2.300 euros (that is five times the minimum imps).
The current law provides that pensions over this threshold enjoy a 100% revaluation for the first 1.402 euros, 45% for the part between 1.402 and 2.337, and nothing for the excess amount. With the amendment being studied, however, all checks above 2.300 would remain unchanged, without recovering any of the lost purchasing power. An opening to the modification had already arrived yesterday from the Minister of Welfare, Maurizio Sacconi: "We will verify the way to produce a similar financial effect, but differently from how it is arranged today". Even the head of the Economy, Giulio Tremonti, had said he was willing to accept new suggestions on the matter, provided the balances remained unchanged.
On the trade union front, the reactions to the Government's hypothesis are positive, but before expressing themselves the social partners want to see the cards: "I really hope they do, but we would like to see the text before saying that we trust the commitments", said the secretary of the CGIL, Susanna Camusso. Raffaele Bonanni, secretary of the Cisl, said he was “happy, the sooner it is done the better. Let's clarify one aspect right away: it will undoubtedly be a positive sign, but at this point it's good to go straight to the check".
