The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development expresses some concern about the increase in the retirement age and precarious workers in Italy. It will make it possible to achieve considerable savings in the future for the public budget - they admit from Paris - but the adequacy of retirement income could be a problem for future generations of retirees.
From 2021, people will retire at 67, and after 2021, the retirement age will go well beyond the 67 limit. The problem, according to the OECD, concerns temporary workers.
In fact, with the contributory method, pension benefits are closely linked to contributions. Workers with intermittent careers, precarious and poorly paid jobs will be more vulnerable to the risk of poverty in old age and this in a period of crisis like the current one, with high unemployment rates and precariousness, is a high risk.
But there's more. In addition to the social benefits (social allowance) paid on the basis of income level, for the over-65s, Italy does not provide for any social pension to mitigate the risk of poverty for the elderly.
As far as the private pension system is concerned, the situation is not yet satisfactory for the OECD. Following the introduction of the automatic enrollment mechanism in private pension plans in 2007, their coverage reached only 13,3% of the working-age population at the end of 2010.
On the other hand, notes the OECD, the elderly are not only pensioners from Campania. In Italy, for example, around 80% of over-65s own a home, slightly above the average of the OECD countries analyzed in 'Pensions at a Glance 2013', equal to around 76%.
And then there are public services, such as assistance for dependent people, which will increase in the future due to the rapid aging of the population. Compared to other OECD countries, Italy spends much less on in-kind services, which contribute substantially to improving the incomes of the elderly.
"In addition to financial sustainability, the adequacy of pension incomes and the fight against the risk of poverty for the elderly should remain important topics on the political agenda in Italy", underlines OECD pension expert Anna Cristina D'Addio, adding that "the cost of assistance for dependent people, for example, can significantly reduce the disposable income of future retirees".
At the moment the situation, which however reflects the pre-reform effects, shows a reduction in the poverty rate among the over 65s, which in 2007 in Italy was 14,5% below the OECD average of 15,1%. while in 2010 it had decreased to 11% against the average of 12,8%.
The poverty rate grows with age, reaching 15% for over 75s in 2007 and 11,7% in 2010. The median income for over 65s at the end of the 2000s (thus with the old social security system) it was equal to 93,3% of the average income of the population (86% OECD average) and was an average of 23 dollars against an average of 21.500 in the OECD.
