The 2017 mini-pension reform is starting to have definite contours and the government and trade unions will probably meet on Thursday to find the final square. It won't be an easy task, because the social security chapter of the maneuver that the government will have to present by 20 October contains various innovations: from greater flexibility with the Ape (pension advance) to the extension of the fourteenth salary, from the new rules for workers early to those for those who have carried out strenuous work, from free reunification to the no-tax area.
APE
The Ape should be divided into three different types. The voluntary one will allow you to retire from the labor market up to three years and seven months earlier than the normal old-age pension requirements, but only if the pension accrued will not be less than a certain threshold (between 500 and 750 euros not decided yet). Early withdrawal will be possible thanks to an insured bank loan which will have to be repaid in the first twenty years of effective retirement with a 6% reduction in the social security check for each year in advance, including bank and insurance interest.
Precisely on this front, however, a significant novelty arrives: the introduction of a tax credit on interest and insurance premiums paid, so as to reduce the cost of reimbursement. Furthermore, on the basis of an agreement with the retiree, the employer will be able to pay contributions for the missing years, which would guarantee a more substantial pension.
The second type is the so-called Ape social, i.e. paid for by the State and at no cost to the worker, which will be guaranteed to categories in difficulty (the unemployed without social safety nets, the disabled, workers with dependent disabled people and workers who have carried out "burdensome activities" yet to be defined) assuming they are entitled to a pension below a certain threshold, probably 1.300 euros a month. People in difficulty with an income above the exemption threshold will still be able to benefit from a reduced cut of 6 to 3% for each year in advance.
The last type is the corporate Ape, under which the early retirement of workers involved in company restructuring will be financed in whole or in part by the employer.
FOURTEENTH
The fourteenth salary will also be granted to the 1,2 million pensioners with total personal incomes of up to one thousand euros a month, equal to twice the minimum INPS treatment. The total audience that will collect the fourteenth will thus reach 3,3 million people. The 2,1 million pensioners who already received it, those with a monthly allowance of up to 750 euros per month, will see the extra month's salary increase by 30%, as confirmed the Minister of Labour, Giuliano Poletti.
EARLY PENSIONS FOR EARLY WORKERS
Early workers, i.e. those who have paid at least 12 months of contributions, even if not consecutive, before turning 19, will be able to access the pension with 41 years of contributions, instead of the 42 years and 10 months envisaged today, but only if they belong to one of the following disadvantaged categories: unemployed without social safety nets, disabled people and workers who have carried out the "onerous activities" mentioned above. Furthermore, these same workers will no longer see their allowance cut if they retire before the age of 62 (while at the moment there is a 1% reduction for each year in advance).
SIMPLER PENSIONS FOR THOSE WHO HAVE CARRIED OUT USURE WORK
Those who have carried out strenuous work for at least 7 of the last 10 years of their professional life will be able to retire 12 or 18 months in advance, even with respect to the current facilitated legislation, which provides for an advance of up to 5 years. Furthermore, for this category, starting from 2019, pensions will be decoupled from life expectancy, a mechanism which today moves forward the retirement age by one month each year. A series of bureaucratic simplifications is also on the way.
FREE REUNION OF CONTRIBUTIONS
For those who have paid contributions to different entities, the reunification will become free. The novelty applies to both employees and the self-employed, as well as those enrolled in separate management, those of precarious workers. However, there will be a disadvantage: it will no longer be possible to choose the most convenient calculation method among those of the various institutions, because the check will be calculated pro-rata, ie with the rules of each institution for the relative contribution quota. Furthermore, the free reunion only concerns public management, not the coffers of professionals.
NO TAX AREA
The income threshold that will allow retirees to return to the no-tax area will rise slightly, to 8.125 euros gross per year, the same as for employees. However, the novelty does not only concern very low pensions, since the deduction on that portion of income applies to all pensioners who declare up to 55 euros gross per year.
