In 2009, the amount of social security expenditure grew by 5,1% over the previous year, settling at 253 billion euros, a value equal to 16,68% of GDP. This is what emerges from the annual report drawn up by Istat in conjunction with INPS. The interesting fact is that the increase is entirely due to the growth in the average amount of benefits paid (+5,0), while the number of checks remained essentially unchanged (+0,1%). However, the average pension remains rather meagre, only 10.634 euros a year. 46% of retirees receive less than 1000 euros a month.
The stability of the number of disbursements can be explained by the effect of the 'stepwise' reform, which raised the retirement age from 58 to 59 in 2009, and brought it to 60 in 2011. Inps financial performance was positive by 1,39 billion euro in 2010, a result due to the stabilizing effect of the pension reforms of the last decade.
