The controversy over the revision of survivor's pensions envisaged by the draft law on poverty breaks out. The provision, approved at the end of January by the Council of Ministers, arrived in these hours in the Labor commission in the Chamber. At stake is the treatment due to one of the two spouses on the death of the other: today the amount of the allowance is determined (with limits) on the basis of the contributions paid by the deceased person; in the future, according to the Government provision, the calculation will be linked more rigidly to the income of the recipient of the allowance.
HOW IT WORKS TODAY
The current rules already provide for several cases in which the survivor's pension is reduced compared to the treatment to which the deceased would have been entitled. There are two schemes to keep in mind.
1. The share to which you are entitled
– the survivor is equal to 60% of the pension of the deceased family member if it is paid only to the spouse (and this is almost all cases) and 70% if it is due only to a child (here and in the following points reference is made to minor children or up to 26 years of age if they are university students).
– The allowance rises to 80% of the pension if the beneficiary family nucleus includes a spouse and a child or two children without a spouse.
– The amount of the survivor corresponds to 100% of the pension of the deceased if there are two or more children in addition to the spouse, or 3 or more children without a spouse.
– Another 15% is foreseen for every other entitled family member, other than the spouse, children and grandchildren.
2. Combination with other income (does not apply in case of one or more dependent children)
– If the beneficiary's income exceeds 1.500 euros gross per month (three times the INPS minimum), the reversibility is cut by 25%. But be careful: this further reduction applies to the portion of the deceased's pension to which you are entitled. For example, if the pension of the deceased had been 2.000 euros, the beneficiary spouse without dependent children would receive 60% (1.200 euros) and it is from this sum that a further 25% must be deducted (equal to 300 euros in the example) . The final balance of the survivor would therefore be 900 euros.
– The cut rises to 40% for incomes exceeding 2.000 euros per month (4 times the INPS minimum).
– Over 2.500 euros per month, the reduction reaches 50%.
WHAT WOULD CHANGE WITH THE REFORM
The intervention launched by the Government should change this approach, because it provides for the possibility of reviewing the survivor's pension system by linking it to the ISEE (the Equivalent Economic Situation Indicator), which refers to family income, not individual income. As a result, the number of people who will be entitled to the survivor's allowance will only be reduced. According to Spi-Cgil, which raised the alarm, the disbursement will only be granted to those with very low incomes.
Two weeks ago Stefano Sacchi, extraordinary commissioner of Isfol (Institute for the development of professional training of workers) and former consultant to the Ministry of Labour, clarified that "the patrimonial component of Isee will not be taken into account", but only the income component. Furthermore, from Palazzo Chigi they underlined that the new rules will apply only to future pensions, not to existing ones.
DAMIANO'S PROTEST
“The Government's delegation on the issue of support for poverty arrives in the Chamber, which is positive in itself – said Cesare Damiano, president of the Chamber's Labor Commission -, but which provides for the possibility of cutting survivor's pensions. For us this is not acceptable. It would be the umpteenth intervention after the heavy ones of the Monti government”.
THE REPLIC OF PALAZZO CHIGI
“If there are rationalization measures – they answer from Palazzo Chigi – they will only be to avoid waste and duplication, not to raise cash in a war between the poor. Government delegation gives, it does not take away”.
POLETTI: "UNFOUNDED CONTROVERSY"
“The controversy over survivor's pensions is totally unfounded – added the Minister of Labor and Social Policies, Giuliano Poletti -. Evidently there are those who seek easy visibility and delight in inventing a problem that doesn't exist in order to then be able to say they have solved it. The government's draft enabling law explicitly leaves all existing treatments intact. For the future, no intervention on survivor's pensions is being studied; all that the delegation proposes is the overcoming of overlapping and anomalous situations. I reiterate that the government wants to give and not take away: for this reason, to combat poverty, the stability law provides for the allocation of 600 million for 2016 and 1 billion structural starting from 2017”.
