There are two objectives that reveal the latest proposals from the Ministry of Inclusion and Social Security on how to make work and pension compatible. On the one hand, reduce administrative expenses and on the other, favor the prolongation of careers. This is what the document “New regulatory framework for the compatibility of work and pension” proposes, which La Vanguardia presented last Tuesday and which has provoked an opposite reaction from both unions and employers.
The ministry does not hide its intentions. Its objectives are to avoid premature exit from the labor market, preserve the financial balance of the system and extend the compatibility of the pension with work from the ordinary retirement age. Objectives more or less shared by social agents, but not through the paths proposed. Inclusion adds difficulties to accessing early partial retirement and, with regard to active retirement, once the ordinary retirement age is reached, the transition to retirement will have to be delayed for five years to combine the salary with the entire pension. pension. In previous years, a progressive percentage of pay will be collected.
“They are meaningless restrictions. We put in place more regulation, exactly the opposite of what most countries do, which are moving towards full compatibility between work and pension,” says Sergi Jiménez, professor of Economics and researcher at Fedea. He is one of the authors of the report that this think tank published in February in which it demands that the salary be immediately compatible with the collection of the entire pension, and that the only limitation is that, from that moment on, The worker no longer has severance pay.
It is not the line chosen by Inclusion, which fears the effects on the Social Security coffers of conditions that are too permissive. In this way, what it establishes is a progressive process, so that, once the retirement age is reached, there will be a gradual compatibility of the pension with the salary. Specifically, after one year of delay, 30% of the pension will be received, which will increase to 40% after two years, 50% after three, 75% after four years and finally, 100% once after five years.
This is combined with two improvements. On the one hand, it is compatible with the delay supplement, which establishes a gradual increase of 4% of the pension for each year of delay in leaving the labor market, with the possibility of opting for the payment of a single premium. And on the other hand, it will no longer be necessary to prove a complete contribution career.
There is also an important novelty for the self-employed, who lose one of the options they enjoyed. Currently, if they have a dependent worker, they can receive the full salary with the entire pension. This disappears with the proposal.
The other big change proposed by Inclusion refers to early partial retirement. That is, when, before reaching the ordinary retirement age, the working day is reduced and complemented by a new worker who joins the labor market, the reliever.
In the case of the manufacturing industry, the maximum to advance retirement with respect to the legal age is reduced to three years (previously it was four), and the reduction in working hours is limited to 50% in the case of an anticipation of three years. . In addition, amount-reducing coefficients are applied and the pension is not recalculated once the worker reaches full retirement. On the other hand, there are new conditions such as that the company that applies it has 85% permanent contracts.
For early partial retirement in sectors other than manufacturing, retirement can be brought forward two years, and there is some change regarding access, both for the worker who joins, with some improvements, and for the partial retiree, especially your contribution period.
“What has been done now is to become aware of a problem. We are late compared to other countries – says Elisa Chuliá, researcher at Funcas, and professor at UNED – The problem is twofold. On the one hand, financial sustainability, and that is partly resolved by delaying exit from the labor market, and on the other, the need to have labor available.” She also adds that “deep down there is a change in mentality. It was previously believed that a person who continued working beyond retirement age was taking away a job from someone who wanted to enter the labor market. This seems to be changing little by little.”
For his part, Sergi Jiménez, from Fedea, insists that flexibility must be promoted and not restricted. “You don’t have to obsess over the Social Security deficit, you’re not going to gain or lose much. But you can gain or lose a lot in terms of social well-being,” he says.
