The future is no longer what it used to be, at least for 42% of young employees between the ages of 25 and 34. When they retire, around 2050, they will withdraw a monthly check for less than a thousand euros. However, some of them will have already got used to it: 31,9% of this group of workers have a salary that does not reach four figures. For others, however, it will be different: they will have to adapt to a pension lower than their salary at the beginning of their career.
This is the picture that emerges from the project “Welfare, Italy. Laboratory for new social policies” created by Censis and Unipol.
Another alarming fact that emerges from the study concerns the longevity of Italians. In 2030, the elderly over 64 will make up more than 26% of the population: there will be 4 million more inactive people and two million fewer active people. Against a replacement rate of 72,7% calculated for 2010, in 2040 employees will benefit from a pension equal to just over 60% of the final salary (retiring at 67, with 37 years of contributions ); while self-employed workers will see the allowance reduced up to 40% of the last salary (for them, the pension will reach 68 years, after 38 years of contributions).
All the exponents, who have come to present the data, agree on one fact: the State alone will not be able to do it. It is necessary to encourage and promote private supplementary systems capable of providing for these needs. “We need to make it fashionable to give supplementary pensions to children who graduate”, suggests Giuseppe Roma, director general of Censis. The data is alarming: only 27,5% of families include forms of integration in their pension strategy, while as far as health care is concerned, the percentage even drops to 7,7%.
Pressure on healthcare is the other structural issue on which much work will need to be done in the future. Italians try to solve their ailments the moment they present themselves to them, and they are also willing to pay. The study showed that more than 70% of Italians bought full-price medicines in pharmacies and that 35% had recourse to specialist visits. On average, each family spent 958 euros privately, and the figure rises to 1.482 euros on average if dental visits are used.
This out-of-pocket spending is also used to solve the problem of increasing non-self-sufficiency. Today the families that have to assist children or the elderly are 30,8%. And we all know, unfortunately, that these tasks are mainly carried out by women, who often find themselves forced to abandon their jobs. However there are many mothers, or daughters depending on the point of view, who have relied on external help. This year around 700 million euros have been spent to offer home assistance to the elderly: a sum that demonstrates the inadequacy of the public system in offering such services.
But we must not let the spontaneity, typical of the Italian nature, take over. “All this out-of-pocket spending must be organized with funds, including mortgages, and insurance,” said Giampaolo Galli, Confindsutria's General Manager. We need to rationalize all this private spending. To increase the trust of Italians in integrative tools and to fight the prejudice according to which "Mamma Stato" will help us in the end.
Another hot topic is development. It emerged this morning that the rethinking of welfare can actually be seen as a stimulus to growth, or even the basis from which to make it take off. This is suggested by the professor of the Cattolica of Milan, Mauro Magatti: "Just as Germany is using the green element to generate innovation, we could use our social and cultural base, which is what has characterized us for centuries". Welfare can be a source of development: when demand increases, there is potential for supply growth, in this case public.
Reorganize welfare according to criteria of sustainability, rationality and efficiency, always maintaining the guarantees at the basis of each state of approval. "We need to develop a basic national network, guarantor of fundamental rights and integrate it with a local territorial system on which to build incentives", says Susanna Camusso, general secretary of the CGIL.
With an openness to dialogue and confrontation, returning to a long- and medium-term logic, a rethinking of the management of public expenditure is possible.
