Heads and tails for the Ministry of Social Security. Although the Congress of Deputies has overturned the decree law that contained the increase in pensions (and which now remains up in the air), Yes, it has validated the other decree that improves the compatibility between employment and pensionafter obtaining the votes in favor of PP, PSOE, Sumar, PNV, ERC, Canarian Coalition and UPN.
This decree (RD 11/2024), which the Popular Party already announced that it would support, has thus gathered 298 votes in favor and 51 against. Furthermore, the House has unanimously agreed to its processing as a bill through the emergency procedurewhich will open the deadline for the presentation of amendments to the articles.
It reforms the consolidated text of the General Social Security Law and other legal regulations, to “encourage the permanence of active workers through the adaptation and improvement of existing social, fiscal and labor incentives; deepening the voluntary extension of working life beyond the ordinary retirement age, provided that said extension is not motivated by an insufficient pension”, as stated by the Government.
What are the validated changes in pension matters?
The Royal Decree of validation involves changes in the modalities of partial, active and delayed retirement. First of all, eliminates the requirement of having a complete contribution career to access active retirement. This favors the incorporation into this modality of groups with shorter and intermittent contribution periods, as has historically occurred in the case of women for the care of children or other family members. “No one is forced to access active retirement or to make work and pension compatible. It is always a voluntary and free decision,” said the Minister of Social Security, Elma Saiz.
This type of retirement now too It will be compatible with delay incentives and its compatibility will be set based on the time it is delayedso that, with each year of delay, the percentage to be applied to the amount of the pension increases. If the delay is one year, the corresponding percentage of the pension will be 45%; If the delay is five or more years, up to 100% of the benefit may be received.
Furthermore, the percentage of the pension will increase five percentage points for every 12 months of uninterrupted professional activity, without, in any case, exceeding 100% of the pension.
“To understand it better, a worker who can and does retire at his ordinary age, if after 2 years he decides to return to work, in addition to the right to his salary, will have the right to a 55% pension that will increase each year worked until he can reach 100% in the fifth year,” the minister exemplified.
Secondly, regarding the partial retirement, the possibility of advance payment of access to retirement age is extended from two to three years (but with adaptations in reducing the working day). The conditions of the relief worker are also improved, since their hiring will be indefinite and full-time. All these changes would come into effect on April 1. Regarding the partial retirement of manufacturing industry workers, the current framework is extended until 2029 (this included).
Regarding the delayed retirementthis is improved as there is now the possibility of receive an additional increase for every six months of delay starting in the second yearand not every 12 months as until now. “It is a reality that more and more people choose to work beyond the legal retirement age. Their number has doubled since the 2019 pension reform and they are already close to 10% of new retirements. We should not see it only as good news for the sustainability of the system. We are responding to a reality and taking advantage of senior talent,” the Minister of Social Security defended today.
Thus, with the new framework, if a person who can retire at age 66 decides to continue working until age 68 and 7 months, they will receive a 4% increase in their pension for the first year of delay; another 4% for the second (2% additional for each semester) and 2% for the seven additional months. This means that when you finally retire, your pension will be 10% higher.
Finally, this royal decree recovers the multiplier coefficient of 1.5 for discontinuous permanent workers in the calculation of retirement, permanent disability and death and survival benefits, which was applied in the previous regulation to calculate the waiting period.