The sustainability of the pension system is one of the great problems of the present and future in Spain, perhaps along with access to housing. We already see retirees who are forced to share a flat to be able to support themselves financially or pensioners who are looking for an extra job to complete their pay. And at least retirees can still enjoy a pension, in the future it is not so clear that this will continue to be the case, since the viability of the pension system hangs by a thread.
Antonio López wanted to echo this topic along with his brother, Juan José López, both retired for years and living in Barcelona and now taking advantage of the opportunity to demand changes in the system while explaining their current economic situation in a recent interview for The Vanguard.
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“Young people live worse than pensioners because salaries are very low and, although pensions are also low, they are still higher than what young people earn,” details one of the brothers, who is a retired doctor.
Young people earn little and cannot buy a house
For Juan José, 83 years old, the difference between generations is evident, especially in access to housing, since buying a house is increasingly more expensive and young people no longer have enough income to take care of an expense of such magnitude.
The retired doctor believes that the financing of the model should be rethought: “In Spain we have to ask for more taxes and people are not willing to pay.” This requires a series of fiscal reforms to guarantee the future of the system. Despite earning about 2,500 euros net per month, Juan José assures that he lives “as he can” and defends that “it is not fair that a pensioner with more resources earns less, because if you have paid and worked for many years, the pension is a consequence of what you have worked.”
The other brother, Antonio López, is a 71-year-old former mathematics teacher who has been retired for a few years. For him, the difference with young people is clear: “Salaries are low, jobs, unless you are a highly qualified person, are low-skilled. Therefore, young people earn little money, work long hours and if they want to buy a home it is very expensive. We, at our age, have already solved all that.”
The future of pensions in Spain is at risk
The retired professor explains that his pension, which is about 2,500 euros net per month, is enough to live in peace, but he does not hide his concern about the future of the system: “I think that in a few years there will be no money for pensions if some things do not change.” For Antonio López, the current financing model is unsustainable in the long term and urgent reforms are needed.
A possible solution proposed by the professor would be a change in the collection system, which could occur with the arrival of a young immigrant population that contributes and contributes new income: “I hope they change the way they collect or that young people from other countries come to pay taxes.” The two brothers live with a pension that they consider sufficient, but they point out that the future is uncertain if measures are not taken.
Updated data on pensions
According to the Ministry of Inclusion and Social Security, Spain currently allocates 12.3% of its GDP to paying pensions, placing it among the European Union countries with the highest spending on this item. The number of pensioners already exceeds 10 million, and official projections indicate that by 2050 they could reach 15 million.
In academic studies, such as that carried out by Joan Llobet, professor of Economics at the Open University of Catalonia (UOC), it is noted that factors such as the aging of the population, low birth rates and instability in affiliations to the system call into question the capacity of the current model to guarantee adequate benefits in the long term.