Guaranteeing the sustainability of pensions, facilitating compatibility between work and pension and expanding the coverage of the Minimum Vital Income (IMV) are three of the elements that the Minister of Inclusion and Social Security, Elma Saiz, has proposed as objectives of his policy in the presentation this morning before the Labor and Social Economy commission of the Congress of Deputies.
To begin with, regarding pensions, Saiz has stressed that the reform carried out in the previous legislature has made it possible to combine a 3.8% increase in pensions this year, guaranteeing that purchasing power is not lost, with a reinforcement of the Fund of Booking. This fund, known as the pension piggy bank, will reach 9,000 million euros at the end of this year thanks to contributions from the Intergenerational Equity Mechanism (MEI), which would mean an increase of 4,000 million compared to the end of 2023. A reserve fund that the minister considers can be an important help taking into account the retirement of the baby boom generation.
This mechanism is the system put in place to finance the growing needs of the pension system. The higher the expenses, the higher the income and a significant part is collected through the MEI, which is currently based on a contribution of 0.7% of social contributions, distributed between the company and the workers, and which will gradually increase until reaching to 1.2% in 2029. “The pension piggy bank is filled and gives certainty,” said Minister Saiz.
He has also highlighted that they are working with unions and employers for a new regulation that facilitates compatibility between work and pension. In this area, he has pointed out that there are surveys that show that there are workers who want to continue working beyond the ordinary age, but who “want to do so under conditions that favor their activity.” Saiz has stated that “we want to favor gradual and voluntary exit from the labor market.”
Other issues that are being negotiated with social agents are early retirement in painful professions, with the so-called reducing coefficients to anticipate the retirement age, partial retirement and relief contracts.
The Minister of Inclusion and Social Security has also advanced her intention to expand IMV coverage. A Minimum Living Income has been controversial since its birth for reaching fewer people than was really expected; for not getting many potential beneficiaries to take advantage of the aid. In this sense, to correct this deficit, there will be new information campaigns to publicize the benefit and also “initiatives to actively search for possible beneficiaries.” “We will continue working to reach those people who could apply for the IMV,” said Saiz, justifying the problems encountered by the system’s implementation logic. He recalled that the IMV was approved in May 2020 in exceptional circumstances and that in less than four years it has covered more than 750,000 households, in which more than 2.3 million live. of people.
