Delays in the legal retirement age and penalties for early retirement are bearing fruit. In 2023 the effective average retirement age exceeded 65 years for the first time and stood at 65.1 years. It is a higher age than 64.8 years in 2022 or 64.7 years in 2021. It is observed that the actual age at which workers retire accumulates a constant upward trend from 64.2 years that were registered in 2019.
One of the keys to this delay in the average effective retirement age is that delayed retirements increased by 50% last year. In absolute numbers, they went from 17,600 in 2022 to 26,500 in 2023, and in percentage terms, from 5.4% to 8.3%.
One can see, on the one hand, the effects of the delay incentives put in place to delay the moment of transition to retirement, and on the other, it is also observed how early retirements are being reduced. They accounted for 34.3% of the total last year, while if we go back to 2018, the advances exceeded 43%. These are data published on social networks on Friday by the Secretary of State for Social Security, Borja Suárez, who stated that “the measures that have been put in place and the substantial improvement of the labor market, thanks to the reform work, contribute to strengthening the public pension system”.
In this way, the total number of people who accessed retirement in 2023 in the Social Security system was 326,949, a figure that represents a very slight decrease compared to 2022 (327,872).
One of the first measures taken to delay the retirement age was the delay in the legal retirement age, which is applied progressively and which should lead to the ordinary retirement age being 67 in 2027 years. In this delay of the legal retirement age, this year workers can retire at 66 years and six months, although there is the exception of those who will be able to do so at 65 if they have contributed a minimum of 38 years in Social Security.
But what has proven more effective are the incentives to delay the transition to retirement. Incentives that were introduced in the pension reform carried out in the previous legislature, and that prioritize with a percentage of an additional 4% on the amount of the corresponding pension or an amount at the actual price that is paid in a single payment . They are two incentives that can be combined at the choice of the interested party. It is a strategy focused on facing the challenge of the retirement of the baby boom generation, more numerous and with more income, which poses a challenge to the stability of the pension system.