Some people’s ears may be ringing, but yes, the Italian social security system is still standing on its own two feet. It is clear that there are fewer and fewer children and the myriad of contracts available to those entering the world of work do not always guarantee a fair contribution. However, before we consider it a disaster, we need to look at the numbers. For example, those of the Social Security Itineraries Study Center chaired by Alberto Brambilla, which yesterday presented its annual report, now in its twelfth edition, on pensions and social security. Well, thanks to the recovery in employment, although far from European levels, the active/pensioner ratio is improving, a fundamental indicator of the stability of Italian social security: in 2023 it stood at 1.4636, the best value in the historical series traced by the same relationship. When you consider the fact that the 1.5 semi-safety threshold is a hair’s breadth away, overall the system holds up and will continue to do so. But with one condition: in an aging country, make more prudent choices in terms of active employment policies, early payments and retirement age.
In detail, the document records an increase of 98,743 pensioners compared to 2022 (+0.61% in terms of percentage change), with men increasing by 68,963 units and women pensioners increasing their number, compared to the previous survey , of 29,780 units. In any case, of the more than 16 million Italian pensioners, 51.6% are women, among other things beneficiaries of 85.8% of the total reversibility pensions (with shares of the direct pension of the causal grantor varying between 60% and 30 %, based on survivor’s income). «Wanting to draw some conclusions, despite the many catastrophists who speak of an unsustainable system in the current demographic context, our social security accounts remain unchanged, and should also do so within 10-15 years, in 2035/40, when most baby boomers born between the post-war period and 1980 will have retired”, explained Brambilla.
However, “a timely application of the two automatic stabilizers already foreseen in our system will be necessary, that is, an adaptation of the chronological age requirements and transformation coefficients to life expectancy, limiting on the one hand the countless forms of anticipation currently foreseen by the dispatch and, on the other hand, rewarding longer contribution bands in terms of flexibility.” However, be careful, there is another side of the coin, which is called assistance. In fact, although the expense of social security benefits, which is equivalent to 12.55% of GDP, remains stable (a value in line with the European average), the assistance chapter, inflated with the pandemic by bonuses and subsidies, continues to weigh heavily on our well-being budget : 164 billion will be collected in general taxes in 2023, with expenses that from 2008 to date have grown 3 times faster than those for pensions.
Source: IL Tempo

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.