With regard to the complementary pension new mechanisms are being studied to increase membership. In this regard, in a recent document of proposals Assogestioni complained that to date pension funds, despite the initiatives implemented, still invest an insignificant portion of the resources under management in the country's economy. Consequently there is room to incentivize system growth of complementary social security, as a central element to ensure an adequate level of social security coverage for future retirees and to give new stimuli to the development of our economy.
Trading fund data
I trading funds they have 3,9 million members (+5,4% compared to 2022). But half of the new memberships - Covip certifies in the latest report - can be traced back to the contractual membership mechanism; while registrations in the public sector also continue to grow through the silent consent mechanism for newly hired workers. In essence, the voluntary participation - which is one of the cornerstones of funded pensions - has become the right to avoid the forms of automatic membership through the classic method of silent consent and the new one of membership sanctioned by the collective agreement to be paid by employers. Work.
Open-end funds and Pips: growing numbers
The data that stands out concern the almost similar increase in open funds (+5,9%) for 1,9 million subscribers, but even more so the 3,9 million subscribers of Pip, the same number of members of the negotiated pension funds which represent the typical product of private pensions. The other case of heterogeneity of purposes comes to light by observing the composition of members according to the main socio-demographic characteristics: men make up 61,7% of members of supplementary pension schemes (72,7% in negotiated funds), confirming the gender gap, and make clear the composition of the unionized groups involved in the negotiations. In essence, for many reasons, including the presence of female workers in the sectors in which the main negotiation funds were established, it takes on particular importance that in the forms of the market the women they reach 42,6% in open funds and 46,6% in PIPs. In essence, there are a greater number of female workers who take care of adhering to a form of supplementary pension on their own than those who are involved in collective negotiations.
Young people and social security: an open challenge
The other critical aspect that cannot be stressed enough is the reduced participation of young people the subjects who in the strategic approach were supposed to be the major users, to compensate for the lower coverage of the public system, as a consequence of the reforms. As Covip points out, based on age, members are mainly concentrated in the intermediate classes and closest to retirement (generation gap): 47,8% of members are aged between 35 and 54, 32,9 .55% are at least XNUMX years old.
Although still at lower percentages than the other groups, in recent years the weight of the youngest component (up to 34 years) on the total number of members has nevertheless grown up, going from 17,6% in 2019 to 19,3% in 2023. In fact, - explains the report - among the new memberships, the share of tax-dependent subjects is growing, whose registration is mainly directed towards market forms . This reflects family decisions to open a social security position for their children with a view to subsequently providing them with independent payments once they enter the world of work. It is at this point that the report puts its foot down and highlights what the debate persists in ignoring.
''The different involvement in the labor market – it is written – helps to largely explain the differences in participation in complementary pensions from a gender and age group perspective''.
Participation in supplementary pension provision by age group
Compared to the workforce, in fact, the Participation to the pension complementary grows with age: between 15 and 34 years it stands at 27,4%, rising to 32,8% in the range between 35 and 44 years, to 36% in the 45-54 class and finally to 45% between 55 and 64 years. Compared to five years earlier, the participation rate of the younger class grew by 6 percentage points and that of the other groups by 3,5-4 percentage points. Among the many reasons for such a situation, one certainly concerns the presence of a inadequate economic base available to younger generations. Beyond the shortcomings of a financial education that induces young people to deprive themselves of income today with the prospect of greater security tomorrow, there is a decisive question.
The crux of private pension financing
What is the main source of financing of the private pension? The tfr/tfs, i.e. a monetary payment provided only in the case of subordinate work: in practice a 6-7% of the salary that becomes available and which acts as a critical mass to which to add the contributions paid by the employer and workers. The conferral of the accruing severance pay is governed by a complex procedure which also includes a form of silent assent when the worker, after the available six months, does not make any option, thus allowing the employer to allocate his share of severance pay to the relevant pension fund. The fact is that the criterion of ''primum vive'' also applies in this matter. Let's take the case of a worker hired on a temporary basis; for him the severance pay is a modest addition to his salary, he cannot pay it into a pension fund of a category to which it may not belong in the next temporary relationship. Not to mention those employment relationships defined as para-subordinate in which the payment of severance pay is not foreseen.
Proposals for a new loan
If supplementary pension provision has not taken root even in typical self-employment, we can assume that in certain weak sectors of the job market can it hold up in out of pocket form? It is necessary to find another form of financing on an asset available to all types of employment relationships: the mandatory contribution or allow the worker to opt for the allocation of some points of the mandatory rate to private pensions. The hypothesis is defined as opting out and is based on the best returns that the markets can offer in the long term compared to those required by law (in the contributory system the GDP). This hypothesis was approached with great caution in the Fornero reform with this formulation: '"Similarly, and always in compliance with the aforementioned balances and compatibility, possible forms of partial decontribution of the mandatory contribution rate towards social security schemes will be analysed, by 31 December 2012. supplementary measures in particular in favor of the younger generations, in agreement with the bodies managing compulsory social security and with the supervisory authorities operating in the social security sector''.
Possible solutions: decontribution and fiscal sterilization
When the programmatic rule was established (which later remained a dead letter), the negative implications regarding the uncertainty weighing on the actual advantage of relying on the market instead of the State and above all the reduction in the financing of compulsory social security in a pay-as-you-go system were evident. But now there is a new fact: the decontribution by 6 percentage points, if the taxable salary, calculated on a monthly basis for 13 months, does not exceed 2.692 euros per month; by 7 percentage points, if the taxable salary, calculated on a monthly basis for 13 months, does not exceed 1.923 euros per month. It is not yet a structural rule, but the government intends to renew it, bearing the cost of the operation. The rule is aimed at increase paychecks of employees and it would be a priest's joke to allocate the increase ope legis to supplementary pensions.
There may be a middle ground that is less burdensome and still convenient for the worker. Since the decontribution is not protected from the possible application of a higher tax rate, it could be established, perhaps on an experimental basis, that the Quote corresponding to decontribution that they are destined for one form of supplementary pension, they are sterilized from tax obligations and flow, gross, to the individual positions of the workers. This could be a general rule with particular regard to lower income earners who have difficulty reducing their disposable income.
