Reform of pensions with cancellation of quota 100: this is one of the interventions that Europe most often asks of Italy. In negotiations on the Recovery Fund, the Dutch premier Mark Rutte – the most intransigent figure of the so-called Frugal countries – has said several times that Rome, faced with the sea of aid arriving from Brussels, should provide guarantees on a series of legislative interventions to be implemented. And she is always at the top of the list: pension reform.
PENSION REFORM, OECD: "ITALY HAS MOVED BACK"
In an OECD document published at the end of 2019 we read that, in social security matters, "Italy has reversed compared to the measures approved previously”, i.e. the Fornero reform. Quota 100, in fact, allows you to retire early by meeting only two minimum requirements: 62 years of age and 38 of contributions.
QUOTE 100: HOW IT WORKS AND WHAT IT INVOLVES
Thanks to this exit channel introduced in 2019 at the behest of the League (at the time in government with the 5 Star Movement, who has never denied the measure: on the contrary, he continues to defend it), Italians can leave work as much as five years earlier than the normal retirement age (67 years). Such a gap is not envisaged by the rules of any other OECD country: in Rutte's Holland, for example, a place can be left a maximum of two years before reaching the legal age.
Quota 100 is therefore an anomaly on the international scene, which is why the OECD and the EU would like Italy to cancel it with a new pension reform.
THE RISK FOR THE PUBLIC ACCOUNTS
Moreover, the mechanism desired by the yellow-green government risks having a very strong repercussion on the public accounts for the coming years. In a year and a half since the entry into force of the new rules, requests for early retirement with Quota 100 have been fewer than expected, because the system implies a cut in the social security allowance that most workers are not willing to accept. But now the conditions have changed: due to the pandemic many people have lost their jobs and many more will lose it; as a result, the prospect of early retirement, albeit with a penalty, becomes much more attractive than in the past. For this reason, second a study of Social Security Itineraries entitled "Quo vadis Quota 100?", in the next two years there could be 100 more exits, which would imply a further increase in already very heavy costs (48,5 billion).
THE FUTURE OF QUOTA 100
In any case, Quota 100 is not a structural measure, but experimental and therefore temporary: unless canceled or extended, it will cease to exist at the end of 2021. What will happen until then is more uncertain than ever. For now, the Deputy Minister of Economy, Antonio Misiani (Pd), assures that Quota 100 will remain in force until expiry because it will be useful as a social shock absorber. But it is said that in the end Rutte won't win.
