Pensions: technicians' doubts on Quota 103 and Women's Option

Why is the potential number of women's options larger in 2025 than in 2024? What is the exact average amount of the Quota 103 'accrual'? And how can the impact of the lower pension expenditure related to the reduced contribution revenue resulting from the extension and strengthening of the so-called 'Maroni bonus' be assessed? These are some of the many questions put to the government by the Budget Service of the House and Senate on the pensions chapter of the manoeuvre. In the usual dossier on the budget bill, the technicians of Montecitorio, where the manoeuvre is currently being examined, express many doubts and make more than one remark on the social security measures adopted by the executive for next year, asking above all for 'further data and clarifications' in order to assess the financial effects of some regulations.

With the extension of the so-called Maroni bonus, which is confirmed for those who meet the 'parameters' for Quota 103 'contributory' and which is also 'de-taxed' and extended to those who meet the requirement for early retirement with 42 years and 10 months of contributions ('41+10' for women) regardless of their age, also in 2025 the sum corresponding to the employee's share of contributions that the employer would have had to pay to the INPS can be paid entirely in the pay envelope of the worker concerned. In this regard, the dossier of the Budget Service of the Chamber and Senate argues that the technical report of the budget bill 'does not directly provide assessment elements such as the average wage amount considered, the average discounted contribution rate and the tax rate used to quantify the induced effects'. It adds: 'further elements of quantification therefore appear necessary on this point'. Parliament's experts also point out that the government's technical report 'does not provide any element aimed at verifying the impact of the lower pension expenditure related to the lower contribution revenue' and for this reason 'it appears necessary to acquire further data and elements of evaluation'.

There is no lack of perplexity about the measures relating to the possibility for public employees to remain at work voluntarily beyond the pension threshold of 65 years. 'In this regard,' reads the Budget Service dossier, 'the technical report does not provide any element aimed at verifying the estimated effects on public finance. In this regard, it therefore appears necessary to acquire the data used to assess such effects'.

The manoeuvre also extends the Women's Option to the end of 2025. The government estimates that this early exit tool can be used next year by about 2,600 female workers. The technicians of the Chamber of Deputies point out that this 'audience is larger than that reported in the 2024 Budget Law (2,228 applications registered until September 2023) despite the fact that in the current year the age requirement has been raised (from 60 to 61)'. For this reason, according to the Budget Service, 'it seems appropriate for the government to provide data and information'.

With regard to the one-year extension of the Quota 103, in the current version linked to the contribution-based method, the dossier of the experts of Montecitorio notes that the government's technical report 'does not provide all the data and elements necessary for a precise verification of the estimates of the financial effects connected to the application of the institute in question, such as, for example, the distribution by age and contribution seniority of the subjects potentially interested, or the data referring to the average advance in retirement compared to what is provided for by the legislation in force'. The Budget Service of the Chamber of Deputies also points out that 'the data relating to the average annual amount of the accrual is not explicitly provided, which appears slightly lower than what can be deduced from the report referring' to the manoeuvre for 2024 (the last one approved by Parliament): 'charges for the second year of application estimated at 804 million euro against 25 thousand higher pensions, while the present technical report estimates higher charges of 476 million euro against 16 thousand higher pensions'.