Manoeuvre 2025: Targeted bonuses for pension deferrals and new deals on severance pay emerge

With the manoeuvre just around the corner and the 'deadline' of 20 September for the debt reduction plan to be sent to Brussels approaching, the pension plan is back in full swing. Not without some friction and more than one distinction between the forces of the majority on the strategy to be adopted for 2025, given that Quota 103 in 'contributory' format, Ape sociale and Opzione donna in a restricted version will expire on 31 December this year. While waiting for the summit between the leaders of the centre-right, set for 30 August, which should also touch on the issue of the budget law, and the resumption of full activity in the ministries after the August break, some hypotheses have already been formulated by the government technicians and by the parties themselves. And the Mef, which has little intention of loosening the purse strings in light of a public finance situation that is complicated to say the least, seems to be looking with some attention at the possibility of introducing new targeted bonuses to encourage the postponement of exits for some specific categories, such as the armed forces, but not only. As the days pass, a new operation to encourage (or 'oblige') the allocation of a portion of the severance pay fund to complementary social security, at least for the under-35s, becomes more and more likely.

The League, with the Undersecretary for Labour, Claudio Durigon, is pushing for a binding channelling of a slice equal to 25% of the severance pay fund to pension funds, thus creating a safe social security mini-coverage for the under-35s to be added to that of the compulsory social security and thus ensure a decent pension for young people, now mainly with discontinuous careers. A solution that has also been evoked and advocated by the Undersecretary for the Economy, Federico Freni (also of the Carroccio). Another option would envisage a more limited share of the severance pay (5-10%) with a semi-mandatory mechanism that would not be fully binding on the worker, also because there would be more than one constitutional doubt as to its full compulsoriness. In any case, the issue could be addressed in September by the government with the trade unions, which would prefer a new phase of 'silence-consent' to allocate the severance pay to supplementary pensions. And it is not ruled out that this would ultimately be the definitive solution.

Durigon in recent days has also relaunched a measure dear to the League: Quota 41, albeit in a contributory version. This measure would, however, need substantial coverage (from 600 million to one billion) and, for this reason, does not seem to enthuse the Mef too much. Forza Italia has also declared itself openly against the use of new quotas and insists on giving priority to a new adjustment of minimum pensions. It cannot be entirely ruled out that contributory Quota 41 (or 'light', as it has also been called) could be adopted next year only for certain categories.

At Via XX Settembre, in view of the next manoeuvre, they are also looking at measures in continuity with those adopted for social security in the last budget law. Such as the use of targeted bonuses to encourage the postponement of retirement for certain categories, such as the police, but not only. The groove on which to place this intervention would be the one traced at the time with the bonus Maroni , but with appropriate revisions as happened on the occasion of the definition of the so-called bonus doctors.

The list of options on which the attentions of government technicians and the majority will focus in the coming weeks includes a redefinition, in a restrictive key (but not too much) of the current mechanism of indexing pensions to inflation. A redefinition that would allow the government to recover precious resources to reuse in the social security sector, safeguarding in any case the lowest cheques (at least up to 4 times the minimum) to which full revaluation would in any case be guaranteed.