Pensioners: are they going to receive less in their pension after the increase decree is repealed in Congress?

Pensioners: are they going to receive less in their pension after the increase decree is repealed in Congress?

The Congress of Deputies has Royal Decree-Law 9/2024 repealed this WednesdayDecember 23, which included the revaluation of pensions. This rule contemplated an increase, effective from January 1, 2025, of 2.8% of the pensions of the State’s Social Security and Passive Classes system in general; as well as a 9% increase in non-contributory pensions and the Minimum Living Income and an increase of around 6% in the amount of minimum pensions.

So much so, that this revaluation benefited 12 million pensions in the system. This is why all of them wonder: what is going to happen to my pension now? Am I going to stop charging the increase? Will I charge less? From the Ministry of Social Security they have specified that “The collection and increase of pensions in the month of January are assured thanks to the fact that the decree law has been in force until today”.

Now, This increase remains up in the air for the rest of the months and the pension could go down in February. “When in February the 12 million pensioners see that their pension has decreased, they should remember that it was the Popular Party in the company of others,” said the Minister of the Presidency, Justice and Relations with the Government Courts today, Felix Bolaños.

The Government has to approve a new decree or pensions will be lowered in February

The Ministry of Social Security only has guaranteed the collection of pensions with the increase this January. Therefore, The Government must approve a new decree so that pensions do not decrease in February (they would have a month to do so). This would also be extrapolated to the Minimum Living Income (IMV).

Why is this happening? In the last legislature, the Government approved that pensions would rise with the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Thus, every December, in the Council of Ministers, a norm with the rank of law is approved that establishes the specific increase that pensions will experience around this index.

Last December, indeed, the Executive approved the increase for this 2025 financial year in the Council of Ministers, but the decree that contained it still had to be validated in the Congress of Deputies. It is here where, this Wednesday, said decree was rejected and, therefore, the increase in pensions was suspended.

Would Congress approve a single decree with the increase in pensions?

Predictably, yes. Both Junts and the Popular Party have criticized that the Government has included the pension increase in an omnibus decree with many other measures that are unrelated and with which they do not agree. In this sense, Junts has encouraged the Executive to present a decree solely with the revaluation of pensions and transport bonuses.

For his part, the People’s Party has assured that They are going to register a law that “protects retirees” and “saves the rise in pensions”since the decree that was voted on today, and for which they voted against, was “a project of cuts and blackmail.” In this regard, they have criticized the transfer of the Cervantes Institute headquarters in Paris to the PNV.

Likewise, the popular ones have assured Europa Press that they will register texts “to guarantee the measures related to those affected by the floods in the Valencian Community and for those people who receive the minimum vital income.”

“The Government’s commitment to pensioners is unbreakable”

Sources from the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration have stated that “the Government’s commitment to pensioners is unbreakable, which is why it established that, in general, pensions would rise by 2.8% in 2025, in accordance with the CPI, and “The lowest prices would rise between 6% and 9%, that is, well above the rise in prices.”

In this regard, the same sources have indicated that “This Government has revalued pensions by 26.6% in six years, despite the irresponsibility of some political groups. “These groups will have to explain why they have cut pensions in 2025 and why pensioners, after seeing their pension revalued in January, will have to endure it being lower in February.”.

Regarding the importance of this revaluation, they have expressed that thanks to it “the poverty rate has been reduced by 16.4% in Spain” and it has prevented “about 8 million people from falling into extreme poverty.” Guaranteeing decent pensions is not only an economic, political or partisan issue, but a commitment to equality and the well-being of the entire society,” they conclude.