Pensions for women at 66 years and seven months from 2018 (same share as for men, record in Europe). Automatic adjustment to life expectancy in 2019, with the retirement age rising to 67 for all men and women. But also: guarantee pensions for young people, contribution bonuses for those who look after disabled children or parents, news on Social bee and Rita. There are so many issues that the government and trade unions will address today in the second post-holiday meeting on social security.
WOMEN'S PENSIONS AT 66 YEARS AND 7 MONTHS FROM 2018
The most urgent problem is the raising of the retirement age for women, which from 2018 will rise to 66 years and 7 months also for women workers in the private sector. This is nothing new: the increase was envisaged by the Fornero reform of 2011 and it already started two years ago for public administration employees.
The unions protest, because there is no European country where women retire at such an advanced age. The government is trying to find a common ground, but at the same time it doesn't want to compromise the actuarial balances that guarantee the stability of the social security system in the medium-long term. One way to reconcile the various positions would be the "bonus" for those who look after the elderly and disabled children, which we will discuss later.
CLASH ON CONTRIBUTIONS FOR THE SOCIAL APE
As anticipated by Marco Leonardi, coordinator of the economic team of Palazzo Chigi, the government will propose to the workers' representatives to facilitate women's access to the Ape social: "A viable path is to reduce the contribution requirement by at least a couple of years, while also keeping account of the number of children. Difficult for the unions to be enough, but it is a first step.
RECOGNITION OF CARE WORK
The second could concern women who assist parents or children with disabilities. The idea is to enforce care work for retirement purposes, with the State paying contributions instead of female workers (although it is not yet clear to what extent). To avoid abuses, rigid barriers are thought of: the child or elderly person receiving care should have a permanent disability and women should be unemployed at that time. This would avoid dangerous overlaps with law 104, which concerns workers' permits for family assistance.
RETIREMENT AGE AT 67 FROM 2019
However, the hottest topic on the table in the government-union discussion is another: the automatic increase in the retirement age to 67 from 2019. A leap that will apply to everyone, men and women. This will be imposed by the periodic update of the retirement age to the life expectancy calculated by Istat.
Defusing this mechanism is the most complicated mission for the government, because adjustments are one of the pillars on which the finances of the social security system are kept in balance. The margins for intervention are narrow. At the moment there are two hypotheses on how to soften this step: the government could make the increase less abrupt for everyone or cancel it completely, but only for the benefit of workers who perform strenuous activities (nurses, kindergarten teachers, construction workers…).
GUARANTEE PENSION FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
The contours of the so-called are much more defined guarantee pension for young people. It is a minimum sum, around 600 euros per month, with a supplement paid by the state. The beneficiaries will be the workers who started working after 1995, who - on the basis of the Dini reform of the same year - will find themselves with a social security check calculated entirely with the contributory method (based on the contributions actually paid), much less generous than the old salary (calculated on the basis of the last salary slips of the career).
VOLUNTARY BEE AND RITA
Finally, the similar-anticipated pensions. A few days ago the Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni he signed the decree for the green light to the voluntary Ape, which - unlike the "social" version, entirely paid by the state - requires you to take out a guaranteed bank loan with a duration of 20 years to retire with a maximum advance of 3 years and 7 months. For the measure to become operational, the registration of the Court of Auditors, the publication in the Official Gazette and above all the agreements with Abi and Ania to establish the interest rates of the loan and the cost of the insurance premiums are missing.
The Volunteer Bee also unlocks another novelty: the Rita, i.e. the anticipated temporary supplementary annuity. In essence, it is the possibility of using the money accumulated with the supplementary pension to stop working earlier than expected. To request it, it is necessary to present the Ape certification issued by INPS, which certifies the possession of a series of requirements. For this reason it has remained pending so far.
Now there is news on the Rita front as well. “The idea is to enhance it by calling on supplementary pensions for help – Leonardi told Il Sole 24 Ore – To those who are 63 years of age and are involved in a corporate restructuring, if they have an incentive to leave or the severance pay, we give the possibility to have detaxed them as long as they arrive, through the supplementary pension, at Rita. Rita herself benefits from a 15% tax rate, significantly lower than that of the severance indemnity".
