“Retirement accounts don't touch each other, but if there were the possibility, and we are studying how, in exchange for an agreement forms of flexibility could be allowed on exits, it would be a gesture of goodwill”. With these words, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, during yesterday's Pd leadership, officially reopened the pension dossier in view of the final sprint of the 2016 Stability law, which must be presented by 15 October.
The Prime Minister's goal is to soften the rules of the Fornero law on leaving work – also to give space to young people – but the Ministry of Economy is resisting so as not to alter the precarious financial balance of the social security system. According to Renzi, we need to work on a solution that "allows a small increase in costs to be recovered later". Finding a road that satisfies both Palazzo Chigi and the Treasury won't be easy, but there is no shortage of hypotheses.
1) UNEMPLOYED ELDERLY IN PENSION WITH REDUCED ALLOWANCE
The first concerns employees over the age of 62 or 63 who have lost their jobs and are unable to relocate. They could be allowed to take early retirement in exchange for a reduction of the social security allowance in the order of 3-4% for each year of advance.
2) EARLY RETIREMENT PARTLY PAID BY THE COMPANIES
Another idea envisages allowing early retirement as part of corporate restructuring processes, perhaps with the simultaneous entry of young workers, but the companies themselves would have to partially bear the costs of the operation. The former Minister of Labor Maurizio Sacconi, for example, suggests that companies pay tax-free contributions to achieve retirement.
3) THE PENSION LOAN
A proposal launched months ago by Enrico Giovannini, former Minister of Labor in the Letta government and president of Istat before that, is also still on the table. This is the so-called pension loan: the idea is to guarantee those who retire early from work a monthly check in the form of a loan which will then be returned by the taxpayer, once the requirements for the pension have been fulfilled, through a reduction of the check social security. It would be "a targeted solution for workers who are very close to leaving - explained the former minister to the newspaper La Stampa -, who can stop working by receiving not an early pension, but an advance of 7-800 euros per month for a period of two or three years on the future pension to which they will be entitled. Which they will repay actuarial later, in installments, before returning to receive the full allowance".
4) EXTENSION OF THE WOMEN'S OPTION
A separate chapter concerns the possibility of prolonging or extending the so-called "Women's Option". Until 31 December 2015, female workers in the public and private sector can choose to retire at 57 years and 3 months of age (58 and 3 months if self-employed) and with at least 35 years of contributions, but with a benefit calculated entirely with the contribution method (which is based only on contributions actually paid during the working life), which can lead to a reduction of up to one third of the amount. To make the extension possible, different conditions could be set: it would take at least 62 or 63 years of age and 35 of contributions, but the cut of the check would be lower than that envisaged up to now, or 3,3% per year for a maximum three years.
5) APPLICATION BY LAW OF SOLIDARITY AGREEMENTS
These are solutions already applied in some businesses thanks to the incentives of local authorities and agreements signed with the trade unions. The "expansive solidarity" provides that the worker close to retirement accepts a reduction in working hours: in parallel the company (which is granted a contribution relief) hires another employee by continuing to pay the contributions of the worker close to retirement. Even the "generational solidarity" model commits the company to employing young people on permanent contracts in exchange for the retiree's transition to part-time employment, but in this case the State would have to compensate all or part of the salary reduction (which in any case does not could be more than 30 per cent of full pay).
WHAT ARE THE RULES FOR RETIREMENT FROM 2016?
Given the current rules, from next January 2019 the requirements necessary to retire will increase by four months due to the update that adjusts the rules to the average life expectancy (to date these revisions are every three years, but the Fornero law establishes that from 2016 onwards they become biennial). Here is an outline with the rules in effect since XNUMX:
Old age pension
Men – In addition to at least 20 years of contributions, from next year all male workers, both self-employed and public and private employees, will need 66 years and seven months of age (no longer 66 years and four months).
Women – The same requirements will also apply to women employed in the public sector, while for those working in the private sector the increase will be greater: from next year they will be entitled to an old-age pension at 65 years and seven months and from 2018 to 66 years and seven months (today the bar is at 63 years and nine months). For self-employed women, on the other hand, from 2016 it will be 66 years and one month and from 2018 to 66 years and seven months (from the current 64 years and nine months).
Early retirement
Men – To leave work earlier than the rules valid for the old-age pension, from 2016 42 years and ten months of contributions will be needed (today it takes 42 years and six months).
Women – Female workers will instead need 41 years and ten months of contributions (compared to the 41 years and six months needed today).
