There are four latest news on pensions: increase in the no-tax area, seventh safeguard for redundant workers, part-time for older workers and extension of the women's option. The measures are contained in the Stability law 2016, which yesterday received the go-ahead from the government.
None of these interventions will increase outgoing flexibility, an objective announced several times in recent months by Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and Labor Minister Giuliano Poletti, but then postponed to next year due to lack of coverage. “The conditions are not there”, the Prime Minister reiterated yesterday.
However, the new rules introduced with the maneuver affect many Italians, both pensioners and workers. Let's see what changes are coming.
INCREASE IN THE "NO TAX AREA" SINCE 2017
For retirees over 75 years of age, the income threshold within which one is not required to pay Irpef goes from 7.750 to 8 thousand euros, essentially the same level as for employees. For those under the age of 75, the bar for the "no tax area" rises from 7.500 to 7.750 euros.
The measure will take effect from 2017 - explained Poletti -, but if the EU allows Italy to take advantage of the additional 3 billion margin of flexibility linked to the migrant clause, then the Government will evaluate whether to bring forward to 2016 also the increase in the no tax area for retirees.
SEVENTH SAFEGUARD FOR EXODATIES
To finance the operation (which should cost 1,2 billion) "the resources not used in the previous closed safeguards" will be used, reads a note from Palazzo Chigi. The measure concerns the approximately 24 people who were excluded from the previous safeguards.
WOMEN'S OPTION
The experimental regime was supposed to expire on 31 December 2015, but is being extended for the whole of 2016. The access requirements will therefore have to be completed within the next year, but they won't change: women employed in both the public and private sectors can choose to retire at 57 years and 3 months of age (58 and 3 months if self-employed) and with at least 35 years of contributions, but in exchange they must accept a check calculated entirely using the contributory method, which can lead to a reduction of up to third of the amount.
Poletti clarified that "a total of two billion euros until 2021" will be needed to extend the women's option. However, the minister announced that a safeguard clause is linked to the measure: if the resources are not enough, there will be "an extension to 2017 and 2018 of the Letta pension equalization system".
PART TIME FOR THOSE WHO ARE NEAR RETIREMENT
“The rule – writes the Government – is aimed at actively accompanying older workers to retirement. It will be possible to ask for part-time work, but without having penalties on the pension". The State should make available 100 million a year (but the sum is not yet certain) with which to figuratively cover the minor contributions paid by the company to INPS: in this way, having reached retirement, the worker who concluded in part time his career will still receive the check as if he worked to the end full-time.
Furthermore, in the years of the part-time period, "the employer will have to pay the worker the share of contributions referring to the hours not worked in the pay slip - the Government explains -, which will therefore be transformed into net wages", adding up to that paid for the hours actually worked. The income should thus come to about 65% of the last full paycheck.
If the scheme released in recent days is confirmed, part-time incentives will be reserved for workers aged 63 years and seven months. The mechanism will be triggered on a voluntary basis and only after signing an individual agreement with the company. Lastly, for employers, there is no obligation to be hired for each part-time job activated, as envisaged by the expansive solidarity mechanism of the Jobs Act.
THE REACTIONS OF THE TRADE UNIONS
"We are very angry and we are not giving up on this objective," Susanna Camusso, general secretary of the CGIL, told Radio Anch'io, commenting on the lack of measures to guarantee greater flexibility in terms of exit.
To soften the rules imposed by the Fornero law in this sense, "the proposals in the field are different - recalls the number one of the CISL, Annamaria Furlan, in an interview with Gr1 Rai -, we said that there are positive elements in the Damiano proposal- Baretta, i.e. we fix a personal age and a contributory age, at which male and female workers can access the pension. I think it's really impossible to imagine that today for all jobs this age is 65, 66 or 67 years old. Even more unthinkable in a country where the companies themselves ask to be able to carry out generational renewal, because obviously innovation goes hand in hand with youth work”, while today “40% of young people are unemployed”.
