A young geologist who starts his profession today will have a pension equal to only 37% of his last income in 22 years. Meeting the Sardinian geologists in Cagliari, Archangel Pirrello, president of the EPAP (Social security institution for geologists, agronomists and foresters, actuaries and chemists), started from this figure to support the need for the reform that the Organization is carrying out.
THE REFORM
With the current system, the pension of each professional is determined exclusively by the contributions paid. By paying a little you will have little, by paying a lot you will have a lot. “We pay the absolute lowest contribution rates, 10% – Pirrello underlined – while freelancers who are not members of a social security institution like ours pay 26% to the separate INPS management and 33% to the ordinary management. Given the structure of our system, as established by law, and certainly not by the will of the EPAP, only an increase in the subjective contribution can lead to higher pensions, approaching the ideal goal of 50% of the last income ”. For this reason, the social security institution has launched its own reform, the result of autonomous choices, which provides for an increase in the so-called supplementary contribution (the one that customers pay on their invoices) from 2% to 4%. Already sent to the Ministries of Labor and the Economy, the reform is awaiting approval.
PENSIONS AND WELFARE
In Italy there are currently 8.227 freelance geologists. The number of professionals grows with the development of new sectors of activity: in addition to interventions linked to climatic and seismic factors, geologists are in fact increasingly present in the field of renewable and geothermal energies, in the reclamation of contaminated sites, in the management of intended for waste.
According to Pirrello, the objective of the reform, in addition to increasing the pension allowance, is also to support members throughout their professional career and even when they retire, with welfare initiatives: forms of life insurance and in case of disasters, supplementary health care, support for children's studies, protection in the event of non-self-sufficiency. Most of the increase in the subjective contribution will go towards increasing the "assembly" of the member, and therefore his future pension, the rest to welfare initiatives. “We are convinced that if we had not done the reform – observed the President of the EPAP – the supervising ministries would have imposed it, and the compulsory contribution would have been raised to at least 26% to equate it to the INPS minimum of the separate management”. Pirrello recommends that professionals who have the opportunity to voluntarily pay more than the mandatory minimum: among other things, the subjective contribution - he recalled - is not burdened by ordinary taxation.
WHO IS EPAP
EPAP is the multi-category social security and assistance body for actuaries, chemists, agronomists and forestry doctors and geologists. There are about 30.000 members and on the increase also in the current year. There are 1.213 pensioners.
It is a very young institution: 60% of the members are under 45 years old. This feature will allow EPAP to accumulate financial resources for many years with negligible costs for services: in the last year, compared to 56,12 million contribution flows, EPAP disbursed social security and welfare benefits for 3,79 million , of which only 2,3 million for pensions. The 2011 financial year closed with a positive surplus of 2,35 million euro. Net worth reached 11,48 million. Financial management at market values amounted to 521 million at the end of the year.
