For those aiming for early retirement, one of the most important innovations of 2017 is the Ape, acronym for Advance pension. The new discipline will be operational on an experimental basis from next May 31st to December 2018st 1951 and public or private workers born between 1953 and 63 will be able to benefit from it. Basically, it will be possible to retire from work at the age of 3, but only if the requirements for the old-age pension will accrue within the following 7 years and XNUMX months.
Introduced with the latest budget law, the Ape is divided into two types: voluntary and social. Let's see how they work.
EARLY RETIREMENT: THE VOLUNTARY APE
The voluntary Ape allows you to receive a monthly allowance to cover the period between retirement from work and the accrual of pension requirements. The minimum duration is six months.
The money, on which Irpef is not paid, is disbursed in 12 months by INPS, but comes from a secured bank loan which must be repaid with lots of interest in the first twenty years of actual retirement.
The repayment will take place in 13 annual installments through a cut in the social security allowance: the maximum reduction will be 5% for each year in advance (but on average it will fluctuate between 4,6 and 4,7%), including bank interest and the insurance premium. The policy is mandatory and serves to protect the credit institution and the heirs from the risk that the subscriber dies before having paid the debt.
In reality, therefore, the voluntary Ape is not a real early pension, because the pension requirements are not reduced. Rather, it is a financial advance whose cost – far from low – is only partially offset by a tax credit equal to 2,5% of the amount paid for bank interest and insurance premium.
There are four requirements to access the voluntary Ape:
1) age not less than 63 years;
2) at least 20 years of contributions paid;
3) accrual of the right to an old-age pension within three years and 7 months;
4) future pension, net of the installment to repay the Ape, not less than 1,4 times the minimum INPS treatment (i.e. €702,65 per month, given that the lowest pension payable is €6.524,57 per year ).
Contrary to what is foreseen for the Ape social, in order to access the voluntary Ape it is not mandatory to stop working. However, the Ape application must be submitted together with the old-age pension application.
EARLY RETIREMENT: THE SOCIAL APE
The second type is the Ape social, paid entirely by the state. Without prejudice to the age requirement (63 years), this new welfare tool is accessible only to four categories of people:
1) unemployed without social shock absorbers and with at least 30 years of contributions;
2) disabled people with a reduction in working capacity of at least 74% and with at least 30 years of contributions;
3) people with at least 30 years of contributions who have been assisting their spouse or a first-degree relative cohabiting with a disability for at least six months;
4) workers who have been carrying out "burdensome activities" for at least 6 consecutive years and with at least 36 years of contributions (nursing and midwifery professions; kindergarten teachers; caregivers; porters; goods movers; ecological operators, waste collectors and separators, personnel unskilled cleaners; mining, construction and building maintenance workers; operators of cranes and mobile construction drilling machinery; drivers of trucks and heavy vehicles; conductors of trains and traveling personnel; tanners of skins and furs).
Furthermore, to benefit from the zero-cost pension advance, one cannot exceed an income ceiling of 8 thousand euros a year, nor receive unemployment benefits.
As for the check received with the Ape social, it is not subject to revaluation and is paid out over 12 months. Its amount is equal to the monthly installment of the pension calculated at the time of access to the Ape social, but it cannot in any case exceed the maximum limit of 1.500 euros per month.
Finally, the benefit of the indemnity is recognized, upon request, within the annual spending limits set by the budget: 300 million euros for the year 2017; 609 million euros for the year 2018; 647 million euros for the year 2019; 462 million euros for the year 2020; 280 million euros for the year 2021; 83 million euros for the year 2022; 8 million euros for the year 2023.
