This Thursday, the Plenary Session of the Congress of Deputies approved a proposal from Unidas Podemos that urges the Government to undertake the necessary legislative reforms to eliminate the reduction coefficients in early retirements. The measure, approved in a non-legislative motion, requests that these penalties stop being applied to people who have contributed for more than 40 years, either in their current retirement or at the time they access it.
The initiative has had the broad support of the Chamber. In addition to the Government parties (PSOE and Sumar), it has received the support of ERC, Junts, Bildu, PNV, BNG, Canarian Coalition and UPN. The Compromís deputy, Águeda Micó, and the former socialist minister José Luis Ábalos, both in the Mixed Group, have also voted in favor. The Popular Party and Vox abstained.
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The motion comes after an urgent question that Podemos addressed last week to the Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, Elma Saiz. Right now, the Law penalizes workers who, even having contributed more than the years necessary to collect 100% of the pension (36 years and six months are necessary, and these are 40 years old) decide to advance their retirement with respect to their ordinary retirement age. For the group led by Ione Belarra this is a situation of authentic “discrimination” that must be corrected.
To have greater context, it must be explained that last week, the Minister of Social Security, Elma Saiz defended the current measure, and even the reform of the pension system initiated in the previous legislature, that is, Law 21/2021 (can be consulted in this BOE) endorsing that said penalties continue to be applied. Saiz recalled that this decree seeks to strengthen the public pension system and that it already includes an economic supplement for early retirements (between January 2002 and December 2021) in cases of long contribution periods.
To access this supplement, the minister explained that at least 45 years and six months of contributions must be proven or, if the pension is less than 900 euros (as of January 1, 2022), a minimum of 40 years of contributions. Saiz put the complements already recognized at 104,000.
Now, if we go to the aforementioned law, under the title “First additional provision: Economic supplement for those who have accessed retirement early between January 1, 2002 and December 31, 2021 in certain cases of long contribution period and, where appropriate, low amount” it is explained that they will be able to access it when they prove 44 years and six months of contributions or when they prove 40 years of contributions, in cases where the The amount of the recognized pension is less than 900 euros per month (with reference to January 1, 2022).
Even so, Podemos rejects these explanations, explaining that there are more than 900,000 people harmed by this penalty. Ione Belarra’s party forced the vote this Thursday “so that the PSOE can portray itself.” Finally, the socialists have voted in favor of modifying the law, aligning themselves with their partners and against the criteria set forth by their own minister.
Penalties of up to 30% of the pension
Social Security penalizes all voluntary and involuntary early retirements by applying reduction coefficients which can range from 0.5% (for one month in advance) to 30%. This percentage will depend on the modality, whether it is voluntary or involuntary, the months advanced with respect to the ordinary retirement age and the total number of years of contributions.
Unidas Podemos does not ask to eliminate all of them, since this can be accessed with 33 years of contributions (in the case of the involuntary) or 35 (in the case of the voluntary), but it does ask to remove those that are accessed with more than 40 years of contributions.
It should be noted that to access what is known as the full pension or 100% of the pension it is necessary to be 36 years and six months of contributions (37 years in 2027 as regulated by Law 27/2011), so these workers have a surplus of 3 and a half years, which does not count, but does penalize if they decide to retire voluntarily.
Not to mention that many of these retirees were fired at age 60, having to choose between looking for work, which was almost impossible, and remaining without contributions for those years, which would harm the amount of their pension, or retiring involuntarily, which would also be harmed by coefficients of up to almost a third of the pension.