Despite the drop in new registrations for 2022, spending on tax contributions increased by 4.8% in May to another record €10,810 million.
The latest pension reforms (in 2011 and 2013, fundamental) are starting to be felt in the payrolls of new retirees. According to data published yesterday by the Ministry of Social Security, the 20,328 pensioners who joined the system in May will receive a first salary of 1,502.9 euros.
It is true that the figure translates into 21,040 euros per year, which is still higher than the most common salary in Spain which according to the latest INE data for 2019 is around 18,490 euros. But the reality is that the amount continues to decrease little by little and month by month.
In concrete terms, the new payrolls amounted to 1,629 euros as of January 1, coinciding with the entry into force of the first part of the reform, which included their revaluation with the CPI. As of February 1, the figure dropped to 1,594 euros on the payroll. And they were reduced a little more, to 1,534 euros, the following month to stand at 1,502 euros paid on May 1. In other words, the amount has been reduced by EUR 127 since the beginning of the year.
If the statistics of previous years are taken into account – except for 2020 and 2021 due to the exceptionalism imposed by the pandemic – the pattern is constant, showing the impact of measures such as increasing the years taken into account to extend the old-age pension. calculate.
It should be remembered that since 1997 the last 15 years of work have been taken into account for this calculation. And the 2011 reform has gradually increased the figure according to a temporary scale depending on the year of retirement, to the last 25 years applicable from January 2022, in addition to the gradual increase of the minimum age for retirement, set at 66 years and this year two months. As a general rule, wages rise as working life progresses. Therefore, the more years of the calculation are close to those of the beginning of the career, the lower the final pension will be.
The Secretary of State for Social Security, Israel Arroyo, already announced this week that the “ideal” model for the calculation would be to take into account the entire working career. But he acknowledges that negotiations with the social agents on this point will be complex. The commitment with Brussels is to reach an agreement before the end of the year to, among other things, fulfill the promise to “adjust the pension calculation period to new professional careers”.
Despite the reduction in the number of new payrolls, the expenditure forecast for this item remains very high. Especially in view of a year like 2023, when the government will be faced with the pressures of the retirement of the baby boom generation and the expected revaluation with runaway inflation this year. It is only on this last point that the Tax and Customs Administration (Airef) calculates that for each additional point of inflation, pension expenditure increases by 1,500 million euros.
Despite this, the municipal minister, José Luis Escrivá, is convinced of the system’s ability to achieve equilibrium in the short term. Although pension spending rose again by 4.8% in May to a new all-time high of 10,810 million (of which 7,820 million corresponds to retirement), Escrivá defended yesterday that “the equilibrium situation is the difference between income and expenditure and that income is also 10% ».
The minister recalled that the 2021 Social Security deficit closed at -0.9% and confided that “at the pace we go, we will close below half a point this year, approaching the budget balance.”
Source: La Verdad
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