The exponential increase in sick leave is becoming more and more evident, putting strong pressure on Social Security accounts. In just nine months The entire annual budget – extended – allocated for the coverage of temporary disability benefits has been consumed. Last September the expense amounted to 11,905 million of euros, having already exceeded the 11,764 million available for the entire year.
The almost 12,000 million expenditure on the benefit to cover sick leave represents 18% more than the disbursement made at the end of September of last year (10,113 million euros), which has forced the department headed by Minister Elma Saiz a divert 2,416 million of euros. A figure that means increasing by 20.2% the amount initially allocated for this expenditure item, which is already the second largest of the organization that pays 10.2 million pensions to 9.2 million beneficiaries every month.
Once the disbursement of this item of temporary disability is broken down, almost all of it is concentrated in benefits for common contingencieswhich are the circumstances that can lead to sick leave. 10,856 million of the 11,905 consumed until the ninth month of the year have been allocated here, that is, 91% of the total. It is precisely these processes that have registered an uncontrolled increase in recent years. According to data from the Association of Work Accident Mutual Insurance Companies (AMAT), absences from work due to common contingencies have increased by 138% (more than doubled) in the last ten years – with closing figures for 2023 compared to 2013 – in the field. of the National Social Security Institute (INSS).
However, in this detailed reading of the temporary disability benefit offered by the September budget execution, the increase in spending on professional contingenciesthat is, originating during the development of a work activity and that are considered a work accident or occupational disease. Although in absolute terms the cost is notably lower than that of professional contingencies, at 1,042 million euros, the relative increase is significant, assuming this figure is 8% higher than last year. In fact, an extra 150 million euros have also been diverted for this item, since the 1,238 million planned for this line of action of the system are close to being consumed.
Spending triples in a decade
To take the pulse of the financial pressure that these disbursements exert on Social Security accounts, the spending on temporary disability in these first nine months of 2024 is 75% more than the disbursements made in this same period five years ago, in 2019 -just before the pandemic-, when it amounted to 6,778 million. The figure recorded in this exercise is also a 261% higher than that recorded a decade ago in the first nine months of the year, 3,292 million, which represents more than three times the disbursement made.
In perspective of the year as a whole, in 2023 the temporary disability expense amounted to 14,208 million euros. A figure that is 49% more than in 2019, when 9,515 million of the budget was consumed and 184% more than a decade before – in 2013 – when the entire disbursement of the year in the different temporary disability items totaled 5,005 million.
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