Disability pensions: the South doubles the North

Retirement or early retirement pensions absorb 37.1 per cent of the private pensions paid out by the Inps as of 1 January 2024, while those of a welfare nature account for 23.3 per cent. Taking a snapshot of the trend in the flow of pensions, net of cheques to public employees, is the Observatory of the social security agency, from which it emerges that there are 17,775,766 pension cheques monitored at the beginning of this year, for a cost of 248.7 billion, of which 13,632,992 (76.7%) are of a social security nature and 4,142,774 are attributable to assistance, with an expenditure in this case of 25.9 billion. In 2023 alone, 1,364,686 pensions were paid out (14.3 billion) and 48.6% were welfare, a clear increase in comparison with the 46.5% recorded in 2022. Compared to 20 years ago, when, in 2003, pensions that could be linked to assistance accounted for 36%, there has been a surge of 11 percentage points.

The South is currently the area with the highest incidence of civil invalidity pensions: 77.4 cheques for every thousand residents, almost twice as many as in the North (39.4). The INPS also points out that for about 9.5 million cheques (53.7%) the amount is less than EUR 750 per month.

The INPS reports that there are 17,775,766 pensions in force as at 1 January 2024, of which 13,632,992 (76.7%) are social security pensions and 4,142,774 (23.3%) welfare pensions. The annual cost is EUR 248.7 billion: EUR 222.8 billion incurred by social security schemes and EUR 25.9 billion by welfare schemes. Inps also points out that 47.1% of the treatments and 62.4% of the amounts in payment are borne by the private employee schemes, starting with the Employees' Pension Fund, from which comes 44.5% of the total of liquidated pensions and 57.8% of the amounts in payment. The self-employed workers' schemes provide 28.3% of the benefits (24.7% of the amounts paid) while the welfare schemes provide 23.3% of the benefits (10.4% of the amounts).

The Inps Observatory shows that 1,364,686 pensions were liquidated in 2023, 48.6% of which were welfare payments. The annualised amounts earmarked for new cheques liquidated in 2023 amount to EUR 14.3 billion, about 5.8% of the total annual amount in payment on 1 January 2024. Welfare-type benefits account for 20.4% of pensions and social allowances (37.9% paid to men). The remaining 79.6% of these benefits are for civil invalids in the form of pensions and/or allowances, with a maleness index of 42.0%.

There are 5.058 million early or old-age pensions paid as of 1 January 2024 by the Inps management schemes for private workers (excluding journalists) and the self-employed: about 73.8% are paid to men. Of the pension-type benefits, 69.1% are old-age pensions, of which 57.3% are paid to men, 5.0% are social security disability pensions (57.0% paid to males) and 25.9% are survivors' pensions, with a masculinity rate of 12.5%.