Elma Saiz, Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration of the Government of Spain, has presented the new INTegraSS tool, which is a model for projecting pension spending. Thanks to this application it has been known that the average expenditure on Spanish pensions over GDP will remain around 14% until 2050.
He highlighted that the projection represents a lower percentage compared to the latest AIReF estimates, which placed this expense at 14.4% and that it was in the pension spending rule that has been agreed with Brussels. “The pension system is sustainable, future spending is acceptable and the measures we have adopted are working,” said the minister spokesperson for the Sánchez Government. He has also highlighted that the percentage of pension spending over GDP (Gross Domestic Product) will reach its maximum in 2049 and from that moment on it will decrease.
INTegraSS will allow us to anticipate the behavior of the pension system because it processes the databases that Social Security has active, and cross-references these with macroeconomic and demographic projections.
“Pensions are the cornerstone of the welfare state”
Regarding the new tool, the minister has been clear, “we are facing a decisive advance for the diagnosis and qualification of our public system. We are talking about the most complete and reliable model to project the future of pensions, which are the cornerstone of the welfare state.”
In this way, the Executive seeks to anticipate solutions to the problems that arise with the pension system, including that of the retirement of the so-called ‘baby boom’.
It is expected that in 2050 the population will have increased and will reach 53.7 million people until it stabilizes in 2070 at 53.5 million. Life expectancy will continue to rise until it exceeds 88 years, as will the economy, which will have a real GDP of 2.8% until 2030 and 1.5% in the years 2050 and 2070.
Delayed retirement rises to 13%
The minister has highlighted that in these first months of the year, the number of delayed retirements has increased to 13%, two points above the end of 2025 and 8 points higher than in 2019. More than 13,000 people have opted for active retirement since the compatibility between work and pension has been improved in 2025.
The average retirement pension age is 65.2 years compared to the average of 64.4 years in 2019.
Carlos Body closes the event and defends the management of pensions
The closing of the event was carried out by the Minister of Economy, Commerce and Business, Carlos Body, who highlighted that INTegraSS reinforces the Government’s credibility regarding the forecasts, providing more transparency to the results and limiting the debate on the future of pensions.
He has defended these benefits as a key piece of the social contract and has assured that the Government must guarantee their sustainability, so this new tool will help make long-term decisions about the system.
“It is important to anticipate challenges that we already know, such as demographic evolution and the retirement of the baby boom,” said Body, for whom we will now move from a reactive approach to an anticipatory one.