Access to early retirement will be “much more restrictive” than in the past. This was announced by the Minister of Economy Giancarlo Giorgetti, who talked about the pension reform that will be included in the budget. “There will be no social monkey anymore, the quota will not be 103 in the forms envisaged last year,” said the Minister of Economy, adding that women’s option will flow into the “exit flexibility” and that “we have increased” the quota of 103. leaving age” but “not the full 104 quota because there are incentives to stay in the job. At the press conference, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni confirmed the intentions expressed by Giorgetti and announced that it would “replace” the Social Monkey and the Women’s Option. “A single fund for exit flexibility for carers, the unemployed, gig workers and the disabled, which allows you to retire at 63 with 36 years of contributions, and for women, at 35 as stipulated by the Women’s Option”.
Signs of retirement, Quota 104: what can change?
Therefore, the framework of social security reform is slowly emerging. Let’s try to understand what may change starting from January 2024. Let’s start by talking about Quota 104, which, according to the government, should replace Quota 103. The age for claiming pension is expected to rise from 62 (as many people expected at Quota 103) to 63 years with 41 years of contributions. However, according to management, this will not be a real transition to 104, but there will be reward mechanisms for those who stay in the job and punishment mechanisms for those who leave. However, as mentioned before, Giorgetti did not go into details of the measures.
The Quota 41 hypothesis, which allows you to retire with 41 years of contributions paid regardless of your age, appears to have been definitively rejected, as has Quota 84 for women (age 64 and 20 contributions).
Merger of Women’s Option and Social Ape
As for Ape Sociale and Opzione Donna, the government’s intention seems to be to combine the two measures. Today, Social Monkey allows early departure from work of employees in so-called weak categories: unemployed, disabled (at least 74%), caregivers, workers in demanding jobs. However, there are various requirements that must be met, both personal and contribution-based. You must be 63 years old and have paid premiums for 30 to 36 years, depending on the category.
As for the ‘Women’s Option’, with last year’s budget law the government approved the 35-year contribution requirement but increased the retirement age to 60, reduced by one year for each child within the maximum age limit of two (59 years). one child, age 58, two or more children). Today, early exit is possible only for three categories: caregivers, 74% disabled, laid-off workers or employees of companies in crisis (in the latter case, exit is possible at age 58, regardless of the number of children). According to Meloni and Giorgetti, starting from 2024, the women’s option will disappear and it will become more like the Social Monkey. However, women’s bonus terms may be more advantageous than those required for Social Monkey today (35 years instead of 36).
Meloni: “Contribution-based retirement restriction should be removed”
That’s not all. At the press conference, Meloni explained that in addition to the planned interventions, the government “has also chosen to introduce a new element for some situations of imbalance, and we are starting to send a signal that no one cares about pensions.” The “restriction that requires those in the contributory system to retire at the age they reach only if the amount of pension is less than 1.5 of the social pension” in the fully-contributory system is eliminated, otherwise it is necessary to wait “to earn” 70 years. “We think this is not the right measure and we have lifted the current restriction,” he said.
Are there new increases in minimum pensions?
But the picture is less clear regarding the increases in low pensions advocated by Forza Italia. Deputy Prime Minister Tajani said that “there will be some increase”, especially for “minimum ones”, and that the target remains “to reach a thousand euros per month” by the end of the legislation, but “if the economic situation changes”.
“We are also fighting this budget to ensure that pensions are increasingly adjusted,” he said on Saturday, speaking on the stage of the party’s national assembly of local authorities. “Group leader Barelli has worked tirelessly in recent days, even pulling Minister Giorgetti by his jacket,” Tajani added.
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Source: Today IT
Roy Brown is a renowned economist and author at The Nation View. He has a deep understanding of the global economy and its intricacies. He writes about a wide range of economic topics, including monetary policy, fiscal policy, international trade, and labor markets.
