Pensions, decline in early retirement continues: estimated 11% reduction by end 2025
The squeeze on Quota 103 is being felt. In the first six months of 2025 the Inps disbursed 397,691 treatments: there were 98,356 'advances'. For the whole of last year there were 889,642 cheques paid out, of which 224,382 in advance form. For women the average pension amount is 30% lower than for men
by Marco Rogari
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Key points
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The race to retire is slowing down again. With a further slowdown in early retirement, favoured by the tightening of access requirements in the last two years, including the binding linking of the contributory method to Quota 103: according to the first technical estimates of the Inps, the reduction at the end of 2025 should be around 11%. In the first half of 2025, the institute paid out 397,691 pensions: 117,901 old-age allowances, 98,356 'advances', 23,996 disability pensions and 106,693 survivors' pensions. Providing this data is the latest monitoring of retirement flows by the Inps, which shows that the total number of pensions taking effect in 2024 was 889,642, of which 224,392 were early, for an average monthly amount of €1,223, while those taking effect in the first six months of 2025 were 397,691, for an average amount of €1,215. The amounts paid to women between January and June this year are 30% lower than those paid to men.
In 2024, 889,642 pensions will be paid out by Inps
Last year, the Institute paid out a total of 889,642 pensions. Looking at individual categories, 271,527 old age allowances, 224,392 early retirement benefits, 60,094 disability pensions and 236,107 survivors' pensions were paid.
The drop in advance payments
.The tightening of the requirements for access to early exit channels, starting with Quota 103, operated by the government over the last two years, has favoured a significant reduction in 'advances'. That comparing the 98,356 early retirements in the first half of 2025 with those liquidated in the same period of 2024 (118,550) would produce a reduction of 17.3%. But according to INPS experts, this method is not to be considered correct because it does not take into account certain aspects of diversity between the monitoring of the first six months of last year and that of the first half of 2025 and, above all, the technical timing of the actual number of all early retirements that will eventually be attributable to the 'first half of the year': about 6% more than those currently recorded (this is the current estimate), which would therefore bring the decrease down to just over 11%. And on the basis of this method of comparing the surveyed data, the Inps experts estimate that at the end of this year the drop in anticipation should be around -11%.
Between January and June 2025, 397,691 treatments were liquidated
The Inps monitoring shows that overall, 397,691 pensions were paid out in the first half of the year, with an average amount of EUR 1,215. But the cheques 'weighed' differently depending on the gender, the type of pension and the fund to which one is enrolled. There were 117,901 old age pensions paid out for an average of 1,136 euros per month, 98,356 early retirement pensions for an average of 2,076 euros per month, and 23,996 invalidity pensions for an average of 810 euros per month. Survivor pensions were 106,693 for 941 euros per month.
The pension 'gender gap' remains marked
.The average amount of the pension paid to women in the first six months of 2025 is 1,009 euro per month, 30.37% lower than that of men (an average of 1,449 euro)y. This difference is linked to the composition of treatments, with men receiving most of the early pensions, based on a higher number of years of work and contributions paid, and women more often having survivor pensions or allowances based on discontinuous careers and lower paid jobs.
