The Government will not have to negotiate until the last moment next week to carry out the last leg of its pension reform, which reinforces the incentives to delay retirement and will allow those who continue working beyond the age of 67 to receive , at the same time, a part of his pension. This Tuesday, the president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, confirmed that the popular people will support this decree when it is voted on next week in Congress. And that gives the Executive a comfortable majority to move forward with the package of measures and will also help to disguise a new break in the alliance with its usual partners, several of whom have shown their rejection of the reform.
That is the case of EH Bildu, Podemos or BNG, who consider, in short, that the model promoted by the Government pushes people with lower incomes to extend their retirement age instead of focusing on providing them with a decent pension that does not need to be supplemented with income from work. ERC sources, on the contrary, confirm that they will finally “not oppose” it in Congress, despite the fact that Republicans were very critical with the text when its final draft was completed. The training justifies its decision by ensuring that the norm includes some advances, such as a new procedure to advance retirement without cuts in painful or dangerous professions.
The vote of these parties, however, is not necessary for the Government on this issue, given that the PP will support the reform with the argument that it was agreed upon a few months ago by the employers and the CCOO and UGT unions. The majority of the two main parties in Congress will project an image of enormous consensus, since only between PP and PSOE there are 257 deputies, to whom the 27 that Sumar has should be added: 284 minutes out of a total of 350. But behind that overwhelming image is hidden a new rupture of the Government with several of the partners who made his investiture possible.
Parties such as EH Bildu are usually very critical of the fact that other centers such as ELA and LAB, the two most powerful union organizations in the Basque Country, are not present in social dialogue negotiations. However, that is not the only reason why abertzale reject the pact on pensions that will be debated next week: deputy Iñaki Ruiz de Pinedo denounced this Tuesday that, in addition to the fact that the norm “does not represent Basque pensioners nor does it have the endorsement of the Basque union majority,” also “pushes those with lower pensions to extend their retirement age to complement it.”
This discrepancy over the content is exactly the same one that Podemos uses to reject a decree that, the purple ones consider, means “covertly extending the retirement age.” “This reform constitutes an attack especially harmful to the working classes, who may be forced to work beyond the age of 70 to see their purchasing power improved, and for workers who carry out physical or dangerous activities, who will see the risks to their health increase exponentially,” Podemos sources denounced this Tuesday. .
Up to 100% of pension while working
Specifically, the main element of discord between the Government and several of its left-wing partners is the new design of “active retirement”, by which it will be possible combine a salary with receiving a part of the pension if the worker decides not to retire when he reaches the legal age that allows him to do so. The new model establishes that both employed workers and self-employed workers who have hired at least one other person will be able to combine pension and work, and the job held may be both full-time and part-time.
The amount of the pension that will be received together with the salary varies depending on the number of years that access to retirement has been delayed: The more years working above the legal limit, the more benefits It will be charged to supplement the salary. Specifically, if retirement is delayed by one year, those who opt for this model will be able to collect 45% of the pension that corresponds to them and, after two years, that percentage grows to 55%. From the age of three, the amount will be equivalent to 65% of the pension, and the percentage grows to 80% for those who delay their retirement age by four years. From five years onwards, the pension will be collected in full even if a salary continues to be received.
What is the problem with this system, in the opinion of those who oppose it? That in the case of those who have received a low salary throughout their career and who, therefore, have the right to receive a pension that is not too large, The decision to continue working beyond retirement age is not freebut it is conditioned by precariousness. The most affected people, according to parties such as EH Bildu or Podemos, will be precisely the low incomes, who – according to these parties’ interpretation – will fall into a trap: either retire and lose a part of their already meager income, or continue working when They should no longer do so to maintain or even be able to somewhat improve their purchasing power.
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