From 2024 the pensions will be lower for many: comes the tight to the salary quota of allowances for some categories of public employees with seniority of less than 15 years. This is what was established by the government's maneuver, which not only reduced the chances of early retirement narrowing Quota 103 but it also revised downwards the coefficients used to calculate the salary quotas for the allowances of doctors, nurses and teachers, in particular those who started working before 1996.
What changes for public employee pensions with the 2024 budget
The 2024 Budget Law confirms (art.33) the grip on future pensions of the public employees: “Adjustment of pension management return rates”. But what does it mean? Starting from next year, some categories of public employees (healthcare workers, local authority employees, kindergarten and primary school teachers, bailiffs, bailiff assistants and assistants) who retire will find themselves with a much lighter allowance. And not by little. The case is different for those who belong to the State Fund (Ctps) or the INPS employee pension fund who are excluded from the innovations introduced with the 2024 budget.
The provision - which is now being examined by Parliament - concerns public employees who started working after 1981 and before 1995. Those of them who will leave their jobs in 2024 will do so with less than 15 years of pension pay. In fact, since 1996 the pension allowance has been calculated with the new contributory regime based on the amount of contributions paid and no longer on the basis of the last salaries received.
The new rates of return scheduled for 2024
With the recalculation included in the Budget Law, the government intends to abolish the advantage enjoyed by these categories on the return of salary portion of the pension. The rates currently foreseen by the Law 965 / 1965, undoubtedly very advantageous, and used to calculate pensions until 31 December 2023 establish non-linear parameters.
Let's take an example. Anyone who worked a year or even a few months before 1995 has a return of 24%. In the case of private employees, however, 12 years of work are needed to obtain the same return. The public employee who worked two years before 1995 benefits from a 12% return for each of the two years. And so to climb until it stabilizes at 2,5% with 15 years of seniority.
According to calculations by Il Sole 24 Ore, under the old system for public employees, one thousand euros of salary determined a pension amount of around 240 euros. The executive led by Giorgia Meloni now wants to replace the old coefficient table from 1965 with another that starts from zero and sees the coefficients grow by 2,5% per year, similarly to what happens for the private sector. It means that those who have a thousand euros of salary, with one year of seniority see the pension quota reduced from 240 euros to 25 euros, while with 14 years of seniority it goes to 350 euros (previously it was around 360).
La news, as has already been said, does not concern those who have more than 15 years of contributions paid into the remuneration system, who will see the old performance coefficients applied - also in the future. In short, the difference between the old and the new proposed regime is substantial for those with a few years of seniority prior to 1995, almost nil as the years of salary and contributions increase.
Public employee pensions: the effects of the new rules on allowances
According to the CGIL, the measure will affect a huge number of people if we consider that 700 thousand public workers will retire in the next few years. For those who have an annual gross salary of 30 thousand euros, the pension cut can reach over 6 thousand euros a year, with 40 thousand euros of income the cut rises to almost 9 thousand euros and with 50 thousand euros of annual salary the cut exceeds 10 thousand euros. The highest figures are those for i managers: with five years paid before 1996, they would lose 800 euros per year of pension; with 14 years of contributions, however, one would see the allowance cut by 15.500 due to the perverse recalculation mechanism which favors those who have less seniority than those who have more. This is 1.300 euros less gross per month.
National strike on Friday 17 November
A real blow that could trigger serious repercussions especially for sectors already in crisis, such as Health, encouraging a mass exit of professionals in order to protect the pension allowance. Assuming that the government does not take a step back, as aired by the Undersecretary of Labor Claudio Durigon after the explosion of the protests which will lead to the strike of eight hours proclaimed for Friday 17 November. “There is the possibility of correcting it,” she said, specifying that something could be tweaked by the Government itself in the form of a maxi-amendment. “Maybe proceeding more gradually for all the categories involved.”
Calderone: “Correction in maxi amendment”
The Minister of Labor, Marina Calderone, during the presentation of Legacoop's cooperative work manifesto at the Cnel, spoke on possibility to make corrections to the cut in the pensions of doctors in the National Health Service: "All reflections are useful and when the budget law goes through parliament it can be enriched with other contributions, especially if they come from a large government amendment: I certainly understand the doctors' concerns, and not only of them but also of other categories affected by this intervention. However I'm sure a measure can be found that on the one hand do not betray expectations of those who are already looking towards retirement and on the other hand take into account that when we talk about pension rules it is important to create a balance between management and above all a balance in management that cannot favor some while penalizing many others".
Updated Tuesday 7 November 2023 at 10am.
