Public' pensions exceed 90 billion (+8.2%) but slow down in 2023

The number of total pensions paid to civil servants grew by 0.9%, reaching 3.1 million on 1 January 2024 for a total amount of 90.1 billion: 8.2% more than 12 months earlier. But in 2023 alone, the flow of new pension cheques paid out falls by a good 9.8%, in comparison with 2022, even though the average amount rises by 4.1%: from EUR 2,001.87 to EUR 2,083.44. To highlight, in addition to the surge in expenditure, the slowdown in the last year in the race to retirement in the public sector is the latest monitoring of the Inps Observatory, which states that 'this decrease can be attributed to an emptying of the pensionable generations due to the use, in the immediately preceding years, of pension advances such as Quota 100 and 102 and to the increasing recourse by members of the former Treasury Funds to pensions in cumulation'.

The latest survey by the Institute headed by Gabriele Fava shows that the total number of pensions of the Public Employees' Management disbursed as at 1 January 2024 is 3,137,572, 0.9% more than the previous year (3,107,983), for a total annual amount of 90,129 million euro: 8.2% on 2023, when the amount was 83,318 million. 58.9% of the total treatment paid to civil servants is taken up by old-age or early retirement allowances, with an annual amount of 58.9 billion. Old age pensions accounted for 14.6% of the pension benefits paid, incapacity pensions for 6.3% and the remaining 20.2% consisted of pensions paid to surviving active and retired persons.

The INPS reports that 59.7 per cent of the total number of pensions for public workers are paid to women, compared to 40.3 per cent paid to men. "In all pension categories, except for the category of incapacity pensions, there is a greater presence of female pensioners over male pensioners, with the greatest differentiation in survivor pensions where women represent 16.6% of total pensions and men 3.6%," the institute points out. It also points out that the largest number of benefits is concentrated in the northern regions with 41% of the national total, followed by 36.5% of cheques in the south, including the islands. In the Centre the lowest, with 22.3%. The regions with the highest number of public pensions are Lombardy and Lazio, respectively, with 11.9% and 11.2% of the total, followed by Campania (9.4%) and Sicily (8.4%). The regions with the fewest pensions paid to civil servants are Valle d'Aosta (0.3%), Molise (0.7%) and Basilicata (1.1%).

The Inps Observatory monitoring shows that, in comparison with 2022, the new 'public' pensions liquidated in 2023 dropped by 9.8%, from 151,208 to 136,418. The average monthly amount, which was EUR 2,001.87 in 2022, was EUR 2,083.44 last year, a percentage increase of 4.1%. Also with regard to new treatments paid in 2023, the category of old-age/early retirement pensions is the most numerous, with 44.2% of the total (and a total annual amount of 1,957.2 million). However, this represents a significantly lower percentage than that recorded for new early benefits in 2022 (50.5%). New survivor pensions account for 30.4% of the total and old-age pensions for 22.1%. The Inps states that this again shows a prevalence of the female gender in all categories except for incapacity. Moreover, new survivor pensions paid to women account for 22.7% of the total while those paid to men only account for 7.6%.