Pensions, the blocking of the equalization for only two years and the consequent "dragging" of the same to the following years "they do not constitute a disproportionate sacrifice with respect to the needs of the general interest", pursued by the contested provisions. This is what the Constitutional Court affirmed with sentence n. 250 filed today, with which all the objections to Legislative Decree 65/2015 contained in 15 ordinances were rejected.
The ruling follows the jurisprudence of the Consulta and is in full continuity with sentence no. 70 of 2015 which instead declared the constitutional illegitimacy of the Fornero Law, which had blocked the equalization of pensions for the years 2012/13, thus removing 5-6% of the pension from pensioners, also for the future. However, the Government relaunched it with a decree law in 2015, which was instead considered legitimate. “The decree-law n. 65 of 2015 on the equalization of pensions - issued in implementation of the sentence of the Constitutional Court n. 70 of 2015 - is not a "mere reproduction" of Legislative Decree 201 of 2011 (so-called Salva-Italia, within which there was the Fornero reform) because it introduced a "new" and "different", albeit temporary, regulation of the automatic revaluation of pensions for the years 2012 and 2013“, reads a note from the Consulta.
“In particular, it recognized the proportionally decreasing revaluation also to pensions – previously excluded – between those exceeding three times the minimum INPS treatment and those up to six times the same treatment. There was, therefore, no violation of the constitutional judgement". The ruling therefore reaffirmed that automatic revaluation is a "technical tool" necessary to safeguard pensions from the erosion of their purchasing power due to inflation, and to ensure compliance with the principles of adequacy and proportionality of retirement benefits over time. He also reiterated that the guarantee of an income that does not compress the "life needs to which the social security benefit was previously commensurate" must be safeguarded.
