Pensions, towards new rules for exit windows: possible stop to the social Ape
The next economic manoeuvre could introduce new rules for pension exit windows, with a possible stop to the social Ape. The executive will have to make a decision on the three pension measures expiring at the end of the year: Quota 103 in a 'contributory' version, Ape sociale and Opzione donna. The Mef experts are also evaluating an intervention on the Tfr and the possibility of allocating a compulsory quota to supplementary forms. The decision will be made in the coming weeks, but the topic will already be discussed at the 30 August summit.
3' min read
3' min read
It promises to be one of the hottest chapters of the next economic manoeuvre. And it could turn into one of the stone guests of the next government summit that Giorgia Meloni is expected to schedule on 30 August to address the most urgent issues of the recovery after the summer break. That of pensions, after all, is one of the dossiers on which new frictions within the majority could manifest themselves. With the executive called in any case to make a decision on the three social security measures expiring at the end of the year: Quota 103 in the 'contributory' version, Ape sociale and Opzione donna.
The same executive will have to clarify what will be the future of the recent increases in minimum pensions and, above all, it will have to take into account the fallout on social security balances of the so-called demographic winter and the discontinuous careers of younger workers, but also of the scarce resources available for the budget law. It is no coincidence that the list of possible measures to be adopted, on which the executive's technicians are already working, includes, in addition to a possible new tightening (or even a freeze) of the revaluation mechanism for higher allowances, a extension of the exit windows to 6-7 months from the current 3 for workers who decide to retire early with 42 years and 10 months of contributions (41 and 10 months for women) regardless of their age.
The menu on which the Mef experts are focusing their attentions also includes an intervention on the severance pay, which, should available resources allow it, could pave the way for a mini-reform of flexibility in exit with the abandonment of the quota system and the simultaneous stop of the women's option and, almost entirely, of the Ape sociale (social assistance payment). On the windows, the government has already intervened with the last budget law by extending those for Quota 103 from 3 to 7 months for the private sector and from 6 to 9 months for the public sector. The possible extension by six months of the window for early retirement with only the 'contributory' channel (regardless of age) would lead to exit from work after 43 years and 4 months for men and after 42 years and 4 months for women.
With a view to guaranteeing a more robust 'pension coverage' for the under-35s (in the mix between public and complementary social security), the technicians in Via XX Settembre are also evaluating the proposal launched in recent weeks by the Leghist undersecretaries for the Economy and Labour, Federico Freni and Claudio Durigon, to obligatorily allocate a slice of the severance pay (25%) to 'supplementary forms'. Once this portion of the severance pay has been allocated to a (probably 'negotiated') pension fund, workers could still decide not to use the annuity to give more weight to the 'coverage' guaranteed by the compulsory social security cheque by recovering what they have paid when they pay the remaining 75% of the severance pay after the termination of employment. Finally, a third way would remain open: to continue the investment in complementary social security without using the annuity in conjunction with the compulsory pension accrued at the Inps in the case of 'employees'. The Inps, among other things, could also be called upon with a possible fund in which to channel the slice of Tfr compulsorily demobilised by public workers.
The decision will have to be made in the coming weeks, but in all likelihood it will already be discussed at the summit on 30 August, since there seem to be different schools of thought in the majority. The Minister of Labour, Marina Calderone , for example, has already made it known that she is in favour of a new phase of six months of 'silence-absence' for the allocation of severance pay to pension funds (thus, without obligation). Forza Italia, on the other hand, is putting the brakes on the hypothesis of Quota 41 in a contributory format, always advocated by the League, asking for priority to be given to a new increase in the 'minimums'.
