Lawyers and attorneys on the warpath. Because? To demand a decent pension, feeling “scammed” after betting everything on a mutual insurance system, replacing the Special Regime for Self-Employed Workers (RETA). This has led them to a retirement pension of between 300 and 450 euros. A problem that currently affects more than 100,000 lawyers and attorneys in Spain.
This Saturday, under the Movement umbrella
“We mutualists trusted the management carried out by the mutual societies, created when they were born (in 1948) by and for our group,” recalls attorney Paloma Isabel Cebrián Palacios in statements to La Vanguardia.
And so it was until the 90s, when the pensions that our retirees received after 35 years of professional practice were 70,000 pesetas for attorneys and 100,000 for lawyers; “They were even given payments from time to time, sufficient benefits were obtained from the social fund.”
The surprise for professionals who are now in their sixties is that conditions have changed. The pension to which these mutual attorneys and lawyers who have not contributed to the RETA regime can currently aspire does not exceed 450 euros.
They are victims, adds Cebrián Palacios, “of the transformation of these mutual societies into non-profit private insurance companies, which provide a voluntary insurance modality complementary to the mandatory social security system.”
This Attorney of the Movement
And let no one tell them, Cebrián emphasizes, that they are now reaping what they sowed after having paid only 80% of what would be a RETA fee. “This reduction is then charged to us by the system itself, because we are entitled to fewer benefits than any self-employed person; In fact, until 2012 we did not have the right to medical assistance. We are talking about coverage of only 180 days in our entire professional life, or only two months for sick leave related to mental health.”
This attorney reveals that the problem now generated by these “balance pensions” has its origin in the “false belief that the amount of our contributions went entirely to our capital.” And now we have discovered, he continues, “that the insurance that covers disability and death is deducted from this fee, as well as a percentage for expenses, so much less money goes into each person’s individual piggy bank than we thought.” .
What are these lawyers and attorneys asking for? “Let the Government reverse this situation with a royal decree, as has been done with other mutual groups,” says Cebrián.
The movement
