Pension Funds, Increasing Returns and Membership. 19.3% take-up from young people
Resources at EUR 224.4 billion, rising to EUR 338 billion if pension funds are included. Positive results also of 11.5% in equities. Women, 'under 35' and southern workers still underrepresented. Families' propensity to open positions for dependent children grows. Covip: consider reshaping current tax benefits into an entry contribution in the early stages of employment
by Marco Rogari
5' min read
Key points
- Women, youth and workers in the South still underrepresented
- There are 302 pension funds, 9.6 million members: +3.7%
- Gender gap: 61.7 per cent of members are men
- Young people up to 34 years of age are increasing, but only slightly: between 35 and 54 years of age, 47.8 per cent of the members
- Social security positions opened by families for dependent children are spreading
- In 2023, resources of 224.4 billion (338 billion including the funds). Contributions grow
- Yields up even 11.5%
- In the last ten years better result than Tfr
- Covip proposal: an entry contribution by reshaping current tax benefits
5' min read
Returns up in the equity sub-funds also averaged 10.2% for negotiated funds, 11.3% for open-ended funds and 11.5% for individual pension plans (Pipani individuali pensionisti). Resources rose by 9.1% to 224.4 billion lire (+9.1%), rising to 338 billion lire if the pension funds are included. Contributions collected totalled 19.2 billion: +5.2%. And an audience of 9.6 million members, up 3.7%. There is no shortage of positive results in the X-ray of the state of health of supplementary pensions taken by Covip, the Supervisory Commission on Pension Funds, with its annual report on its activities in 2023, presented to the Chamber of Deputies by acting president Francesca Balzani. Not least because 2023 marked the real restart of the planet of supplementary pension schemes after a less than brilliant 2022. A planet in which the participation of the 'under-35s' rises slightly by 1.7% compared to 2019 but remains low, not exceeding 19.3%, and the 'gender gap' remains marked with a male presence of 61.7% and a peak of 72.7% in negotiated funds. The appeal of supplementary pensions also continues to be lacking in the South. Some encouraging signs come, among the new memberships, from the growth of tax dependents, i.e. pension positions activated by families for their children.
Women, youth and workers in the South still underrepresented
"Women, young people, and workers in southern areas continue to be less present in the complementary social security system," the Covip dossier states, in which it reiterates that "an adequate structuring of the social security system on several pillars appears increasingly necessary to mitigate the specific risks affecting the basic pension system and to increase the likelihood of achieving higher social security benefits overall". And for this reason it is suggested, among other interventions, a remodulation of the current tax benefits, which 'could be transformed into an entry contribution in the early stages of employment'.
There are 302 pension funds, 9.6 million members: +3.7%
Covip's report first of all shows that there were 302 pension funds at the end of 2023: 33 negotiated funds, 40 open-ended funds, 68 individual pension plans (Pip) and 161 pre-existing pension funds. The number of members reached 9.6 million (36.9% of the labour force), an increase of 3.7% over the previous year. The negotiated funds counted 3.9 million members (+5.4% over 2022): the dossier notes that half of the new memberships are attributable to the contractual membership mechanism and that enrolments in the public sector also continue to grow through the 'silence-consent' mechanism for newly hired workers. There were 1.9 million members in open-ended funds (+5.9%), 3.9 million in PIPs (+1.7%) and 656 thousand in pre-existing funds.
Gender gap: 61.7% of members are men
.The dossier shows that men account for 61.7% of members of supplementary pension schemes, with a peak of 72.7% in negotiated funds, confirming the gender gap. In market forms women reach 42.6% in open-ended funds and 46.6% in PIPs.
Young people up to 34 years of age are increasing, but only slightly: between 35 and 54 years of age, 47.8% of members
.47.8 per cent of the members are between 35 and 54 years old, 32.9 per cent are at least 55 years old. The Authority's report states that 'although still at lower percentages compared to the other groups, the weight of the youngest component (up to 34 years of age) on the total number of members has nevertheless increased in recent years, rising from 17.6% in 2019 to 19.3% in 2023'. With respect to the labour force, the comparison with 2019 shows that in 2023 the participation rate of the youngest group (27.4% between 15 and 34 years of age) grows by 6 percentage points and that of the other groups by 3.5 to 4 percentage points.
