The Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, Elma Saiz, has denied that the retirement age is going to be raised to 70 years and guarantees that the pension reform ensures payment of benefits to the baby boomer generation. Furthermore, it has accused the Popular Party (PP) of behaving like a “private bank” in what has to do with self-employed workers since they have proposed incentives in contributions linked to private pension plans.
During an intervention carried out on the day Metafuturethe head of Social Security has defended the strength of the public pension system in Spain, guaranteeing that young people’s pensions “are insured.” He has criticized Feijóo’s party since he considers that they have proposed discounts conditional on private savings, insisting that contributions “are not taxes” but rather a tool that allows “correcting historical gaps” between salaried workers and the self-employed.
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Table with the retirement pension that you will have according to the years of contributions if you receive the Minimum Interprofessional Wage
Alfonso Muñoz (57 years old), Social Security official: “Penalizing for life someone who has contributed for more than 40 years is unfair”
These They receive an average of 650 euros less pension per montha difference that, as has been pointed out, the real income contribution reform aims to reduce.
The pension system “is sustainable”
Saiz has defended the sustainability of the pension system and recalled that questioning them “is not something new.” “There are covers from the 80s that warned that the system was not sustainable,” he indicated, pointing out that the latest reforms, including the Intergenerational Equity Mechanism, have been designed thinking about the impact that the mass retirement of baby boomers will have but on the horizon of 2050 “when those tensions have passed.”
He has denied that raising the retirement age to 70 years is being contemplated and has recalled that the average retirement age in Spain is 65 years and that it is set in the pension reform.
He has lamented the irresponsibility of some who contribute to “generating confusion” about the system, fueling “an intergenerational war” that has no basis. The Spanish pension system is “contributory” and “each worker begins to generate rights from the first day of contribution” not only for retirement but for benefits such as maternity, unemployment or sick leave.
Public services are not cut to pay pensions
Saiz has also stressed that the financing of pensions is complemented by contributions from the State, a “usual” mechanism in neighboring countries. “Supporting pensions does not detract resources from hospitals, schools or roads; they are different sources of financing,” he stated, in response to speeches that link spending on pensions with cuts in other public services.
In her analysis of the future of the system, the minister has highlighted the role of immigration, recalling that 14% of Social Security affiliates are foreigners and that eight out of every ten people who arrived in the last 25 years are incorporated into the labor market. “It is a country success,” he said.
The head of Social Security has also focused on the organization’s modernization process, which, as she said, is “the most advanced in history.” He has defended the deployment of artificial intelligence tools financed with European funds to improve management and automate procedures, although with strict controls. “The algorithm must be at the service of rights, not the other way around,” he stated, before clarifying that decisions on benefits will continue to correspond to civil servants and will be subject to audits and ethical committees.