Noting that theretirement age preferred is that of 60 (we did not find specific gender indications) Money specifies that - with the current rules - this possibility is permitted only by those retirement options that do not include a personal age requirement such as early retirement (42 years and 10 months for men and one year less for women) and the option reserved for early adopters (with only 41 years of contributions) provided that at the age of 19 they have already accrued 12 months of contributions and fall within the profiles that require greater protection (unemployed, invalids, caregivers, loan sharks). It is also necessary that at least one weekly contribution is accrued in the salary calculation regime, therefore by 31 December 1995.
It is very important to take these rules into account because the generations who have been retiring for many years now and who will retire in the coming years have been able to claim a long and continuous seniority in work and contributions at an effective age of retirement around the age of 60, especially the men, while the women they have been channeled into the private sectors (not so in the public sector for intuitive reasons) towards old-age retirement which requires a high age requirement of 67 years, but a contribution requirement of only 20 years. as Eurostat recently highlighted, retirement registry data in Italy are related to the low length of working life expected for women with just 28,3 years of age in 2023 compared to the average 34,7 in the EU. For men, the expected duration of working life in Italy is 37,2 years with a much smaller gap than that of women compared to the EU average (39 years in 2023). For pure contributors, i.e. for those who started working exclusively after 1 January 1996, access to the pension is permitted at 64 years of age and 20 years of contributions, but an adequacy requirement corresponding to the amount is also required of the social allowance. In this apparently dissociated reality lies the mystery of the Italian pension system, in which the required age requirements seem high but above all workers have the condition of taking the path towards retirement as elderly/young people. And in Italy the stock of early pensions exceeds that of old age benefits by two million.
Late and too low pensions? The data belies it
But what is the reality of retirement in Italy? To answer this question we make use of the contributions of two great experts such as Alberto Brambilla, president of Itinerari social security and of Antonietta Mundo of the Scientific Committee which do justice to many clichés now sedimented through decades of bad information. The recurring vulgate holds together two lies: 1) he retires too late; 2) pensions are too low. The data – which is hard-headed – proves the opposite. In 2023, INPS paid 1.501.104 (new) benefits: 1 for every 39 inhabitants, a true European record. Of these, 837.399 are IVS social security treatments (early pensions, social security invalidity, old age and survivors), equal to 55,8% of the total of those paid, of which 83,7% to the private sector and 16,3% to management of the Public Administration for an average amount of 1.292 euros per month, with a decrease compared to the 2022 IVS of 4,1% and with an even more marked reduction for the "early and old age" categories alone, equal to -5,5%.
As regards retirement ages, the pensions integrated into the minimum salary are 8,1% (68.103 pensions) of the total IVS, with an average monthly amount of 570 euros, an average integration of 156 euros per month and an age average of 68,9 years because 48,4% are paid to survivors; 38,7% are old age pensions (of which 51,6% for private employees, 44,2% for the self-employed, 4,2% in the management of cumulation and aggregation), 10,6% are disability pensions social security and 2,2% (1.508 pensions) paid for over 83% to self-employed agricultural workers with an average age of 60,5 years (direct farmers, settlers and sharecroppers). For the purposes of the average retirement ages, the 663.705 welfare payments paid in 2023 were not considered, of which 50.502 social allowances and 613.203 civil disability payments increased by 5,6% compared to 2022.
The effective average retirement age for IVS is 66,6 years
The average actual age at retirement for IVS was 66,6 years, an age quite close to the legal age of 67 years established for the old-age pension of men and women. Contributing to this average are: a) the 252.160 survivors' pensions with average gross monthly amounts of 1.015 euros and an effective average age of 74,8 years; the lowest age of 55,5 years is related to the 65.360 social security disability pensions (13 monthly payments of 829 euros gross); b) the 265.058 old-age pensions with an effective average age of 67,5 years, an average amount of 1.112 euros and contributory seniority of at least 20 years or slightly more, although almost always with some years of notional contributions for illnesses, redundancy payments, unemployment and so on (this is why they are often minimally integrated); of these 34.736 are additional old-age pensions from the Separate Management with 383 euros per month and effective average age at retirement of 68,7 years (bear in mind that these are mainly second or third pensions, ed.); c) the 254.821 early pensions with an effective average age of 61,7 years, benefits among which are those paid with 42 years and 10 months of seniority and without age requirements (one year less for women), a seniority contribution rate more than double that of "old age". The 104.806 early pensions of the Employee Fund, which in 2023 represent 91,8% of the early pensions paid, show an average age of 61,0 years with average monthly amounts of 2.035 euros gross. Early pensions obviously have longer durations and higher average amounts than all other categories.
From the sum of early and old-age pensions (bec), equal to 34,6% of all new pensions paid, an effective average age of 64,6 years results, with an average gross monthly amount of 1.563 euros (in 2022 the corresponding OECD average, was 64,4 effective years). Other regulatory measures also contribute to the lowering of the ages, including, for the private sector, "weary activities", early workers with 41 years of contributions, Quota 100-102-103, Women's Option, while the social APE is excluded, since deals with a non-pension welfare benefit. In the public sector, however, employees of local authorities registered with the CPDEL, teachers registered with the Teachers' Pension Fund - CPI or civil and military employees of the State registered with the State Pension Fund - CTPS: all managements in which statutory age limits of 65 apply years for old age retirement or are automatically placed in early retirement at any age upon reaching the seniority of 42 years and 10 months (one year less for women). For military personnel, the pension requirements are lowered to 60 years of age and 35 years of seniority. Other age limits for early retirement concern the loss of qualifying qualifications for some professional profiles: 60 years for pilots and technicians registered with the Flight Fund, 60 years for flight controllers and some ENAV technical profiles; as a rule, still 48 years of age for professional athletes and 47 years of age with 20 years of seniority for dancers and terpsichoreans (since, like everyone, they can do other jobs, it would be time to bring these old rules back to normal). On the other hand, the old-age age can reach 70 years of age for the old-age pension of health workers registered with the CPS fund, of judicial officers registered with the CPUG fund and for magistrates.
