Pensions, the impact of the revaluation cut on pensions above EUR 2,500

For pensioners with pensions of over 2,500 euros gross (less than 2,000 euros net), the loss linked to the reduced revaluation is quantifiable over the next 10 years at least at 13,000 euros, a value destined to rise progressively the higher the pension cheque increases, reaching up to 115,000 for those with cheques of over 10,000 euros gross (about 6,000 euros net). This penalisation affects more than 3.5 million pensioners, a group equal to just over a fifth of all pensioners (21.9%), with incomes over four times the minimum allowance - currently set at EUR 616.67 -, the same people who pay 62% of the Irpef tax on their pensions, after having paid many contributions during their active lives.

This is the picture outlined by Itinerari Previdenziali and Cida, which presented in Rome the Observatory on public expenditure and revenue 'The devaluation of pensions in Italy', a study analysing the effects on annuities of the pension revaluation mechanisms applied over the last thirty years, focusing above all on the innovations introduced by the most recent financial manoeuvres, in particular the Meloni government's Budget Law 2024 for the three-year period 2024-2026. Which, aided by the high inflationary flare-up of the 2023-2024 biennium, has penalised 'as never before the pensioners who have contributed most to the system', a measure, moreover, 'not exempt from possible profiles of unconstitutionality', with particular reference to the pension quotas calculated using the contribution-based method, which would provide for the full revaluation of cheques.

"In thirty years, medium-high pensions have lost more than a quarter of their purchasing power," commented Stefano Cuzzilla, president of Cida. "This is the symbol of a system that punishes those who have given more, mortifies the most loyal contributors, and breaks the bond of responsibility between generations. Pensions are not a privilege, they are deferred wages, the fruit of a lifetime of work and taxes paid. They are also the greatest intergenerational pact a country can make: those who work today support those who worked yesterday, in the certainty that tomorrow their commitment will be recognised. We demand a clear political choice: stable rules, legal certainty and respect for merit. We are faced with an obvious contradiction,' Cuzzilla explained, 'because "1.8 million pensioners with incomes of 35,000 euro and up, just under 14% of the total, alone guarantee 46.33% of the Irpef of the entire category, and yet they are precisely the ones most affected by the cuts and the lack of revaluation. In contrast, those who have paid little or no contributions have been fully protected against inflation. This is a genuine reversal of the principle of fairness. Supporting the most vulnerable is a duty, but it becomes an injustice when solidarity always falls on the same while evasion goes unpunished'.

Moreover, as Alberto Brambilla, president of the Itinerari Previdenziali study and research centre, points out, the unfavourable equalisation was applied on the entire pension income and not by brackets: to give an example referring to 2023, a pensioner with an income of between 2,627 and 3,152 euro saw his entire pension revalued at 4.3% (against a definitive inflation rate of 8.1%), and not just the portion exceeding 5 times the minimum treatment. It is only for 2025, with the attenuation of the inflationary surge, that there has in fact been a return to the staggered application on a 3-band scheme: the provisional inflation rate of 0.8% will be applied to 100% up to 4 times the minimum treatment, 90% between 4 and 5 times, and 75% above 5 times. This,' Brambilla adds, 'does not make up for what happened in the previous two-year period: as the publication points out, this is not a loss limited to 2023 and 2024, but a permanent subtraction of pension income over time, destined to drag on in subsequent years'.

Considering the lack of indexation suffered from 2012 to 2022, pension treatments above 10 times the minimum have lost about 9 percentage points compared to a total inflation of 11.6%. Devaluation to which is added that of the three-year period 2023-2025, which is even stronger due to the combined effect of the inflation boom and the equalisation mechanisms introduced by the Meloni government: in this case, the losses amount to about 12% and, added to the previous ones, determine a devaluation of pensions of more than 21% over 14 years. This means that over this period of time a pension of 10,000 euro gross (about 6,000 euro net) has lost almost 178,000 euro, while a pension of 5,500 ero gross monthly (about 3,400 euro net) has suffered a loss of about 96,000 euro. "Taking into account the carry-over effect, this means," Brambilla adds, "that the so-called pensioners of the middle 'class', in addition to taking on the bulk of the 56 billion in Irpef coming from pensions, will see another 45 billion or so unfairly subtracted."