Since 2007, 22.2% of severance pay to pension funds, majority pushes: silence consent bis

The majority intensifies the pressure in the House to open a new six-month phase of "silence assent" for the severance pay fund, with the aim of strengthening the complementary pension scheme. Among the approximately 250 'super-signalled'amendments to the manoeuvre, on which voting will begin in the Budget Commission from the second week of December, there is also the one by the president of the Labour Committee, Walter Rizzetto (Fdi), which goes precisely in this direction. And which is in fact in line with the wish expressed in recent weeks by the Minister of Labour, Marina Calderone, and with some of the demands of the League. And in the event that this adjustment were to receive the OK from Montecitorio, next year the flow of liquidations directed to pension funds would be destined to undergo a surge. In 2023, out of the approximately 31.3 billion Tfr generated by the production system, according to estimates reported in Covip's latest survey, only 7.8 billion, or about 25%, were paid into supplementary pension funds: a slightly higher 'share' than the 22.2% recorded since 2007, the year in which the rules now in force were triggered. Another 17.3 billion remained set aside with companies and 6.1 billion went to the Inps treasury fund.

A percentage that many in the majority, and not only, still consider insufficient, especially in view of the need to strengthen the so-called 'social security coverage' of the under-35s, mainly with discontinuous careers. Hence the pressure to open a new six-month period of 'silent consent', which, on the basis of the Rizzetto amendment, should be triggered on 1 January 2025. This would in fact be a re-edition of the intervention that accompanied the launch of the complementary pension reform introduced in 2007. A reform that essentially provides for the retention of the severance pay in companies with fewer than 50 employees, the 'parking' of the 'liquidation' at the Treasury fund in the event that employees of companies with more than 50 employees do not opt for the supplementary pension, but also the allocation of the accruing severance pay to the collective pension scheme in the event that within six months of first being hired the employee has not made any choice on his or her liquidation. The same reform also gave the employee the possibility of directing the severance pay to complementary forms in 'explicit mode', i.e. by paying his severance pay to a pension fund or other supplementary form, and allocating to the complementary social security scheme, in addition to the 'accruing', also an additional contribution quota (at his expense and possibly also at the employer's). This quota is fully deductible from the total income up to the annual threshold of €5,164.57.

Since the start of the reform in 2007, which offered workers these different options for using their accrued severance pay, a flow of 'liquidations' of about 438 billion was generated up to 2023: more than half (55.3 per cent, or 241.9 billion) remained in the company. A total of 98.5 billion (22.5 per cent of the total) went to the treasury fund and 97.3 billion (22.2 per cent) went to supplementary pensions.

Covip's latest annual report shows that last year supplementary pension schemes collected EUR 19.2 billion in contributions compared to EUR 18.2 billion in 2022 (+ 5.2%). Of these 'payments', 7.8 billion were for severance pay, while contributions from employees and employers amounted to 5 billion and 2.9 billion respectively.

The majority is also pushing for other corrections to the pensions chapter of the manoeuvre. The shortlist of 'super-signalled' amendments includes, in addition to the Fi amendment to raise the 'minimum' to at least EUR 623 per month, two adjustments by the League, which aim to give employers the possibility to use company bonuses to facilitate exits and to allow the value of supplementary annuities to be counted, on request, to reach the minimum amount required for access to old age and early retirement pensions.