Milan, 30 Oct. (LaPresse) – The pension measure in the budget bill is “a brazen and deceptive move. It is not a structural reform, yet it is being passed off as such. It is yet another short-term ploy by a man chasing votes, who has not even realised that the many people who voted for him in the past, believing his promises, no longer see early retirement as a benefit for themselves, nor as an advantage for young people. If anything, they have realised that, with longer life expectancy, it is important to retire a little later, and with an adequate pension.” So said the former Minister for Labour and Social Policies, Elsa Fornero, in an interview with ‘La Stampa’, taking issue with the Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the League, Matteo Salvini. “By now, this has become a personal issue for him, a matter of sheer stubbornness. That way, he can claim to have dismantled the Fornero law, even if only for a year. He still hasn’t grasped how a pension system works. He hasn’t even found a single competent person to explain it to him clearly,” she adds. According to Fornero, “the legislation introduces a funding scheme – apparently for three years – for the early retirement of people still in work. And let me be clear: anyone, not specific categories in difficulty. The government has been careful not to mention that, if the calculation is based entirely on contributions, the pension will inevitably and significantly be lower than it would be if the person were to continue working for a few more years. This is because, for those currently due to retire, the contribution-based calculation entails not only the reduction resulting from the lower retirement age, but also that arising from the loss of the earnings-related portion of the pension.” When asked whether it might not be a good thing to introduce a little flexibility into the system, Fornero replies: “This is part of the deception. You cannot call this early retirement ‘flexibility’ without specifying that it will be funded by a new tax on pensioners – people who, incidentally, receive pensions that are far from generous, and who have already suffered real losses in the past as a result of de-indexation. To put it plainly: it has been calculated that between 2016 and 2025, the loss for a pension of 2,500 euros amounted to around a quarter. Furthermore, this proposal completely ignores the country’s priorities and the future of young people. Are we sure, for example, that it would not have been fairer to tax inheritances transparently and thereby increase funding for schools?”
Pensions, Fornero: “A fund for early retirement? It’s a sham; Salvini isn’t very competent”
Milan, 30 Oct. (LaPresse) – The pension measure in the budget bill is “a brazen and deceptive move. It is not a structural reform, yet it is being passed off as such. It is yet another short-term ploy by a man chasing votes, who has not even realised that the many people who voted for him in the past, believing his promises, no longer see early retirement as a benefit for themselves, nor as an advantage for young people. If anything, they have realised that, with longer life expectancy, it is important to retire a little later, and with an adequate pension.” So said the former Minister for Labour and Social Policies, Elsa Fornero, in an interview with ‘La Stampa’, taking issue with the Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the League, Matteo Salvini. “By now, this has become a personal issue for him, a matter of sheer stubbornness. That way, he can claim to have dismantled the Fornero law, even if only for a year. He still hasn’t grasped how a pension system works. He hasn’t even found a single competent person to explain it to him clearly,” she adds. According to Fornero, “the legislation introduces a funding scheme – apparently for three years – for the early retirement of people still in work. And let me be clear: anyone, not specific categories in difficulty. The government has been careful not to mention that, if the calculation is based entirely on contributions, the pension will inevitably and significantly be lower than it would be if the person were to continue working for a few more years. This is because, for those currently due to retire, the contribution-based calculation entails not only the reduction resulting from the lower retirement age, but also that arising from the loss of the earnings-related portion of the pension.” When asked whether it might not be a good thing to introduce a little flexibility into the system, Fornero replies: “This is part of the deception. You cannot call this early retirement ‘flexibility’ without specifying that it will be funded by a new tax on pensioners – people who, incidentally, receive pensions that are far from generous, and who have already suffered real losses in the past as a result of de-indexation. To put it plainly: it has been calculated that between 2016 and 2025, the loss for a pension of 2,500 euros amounted to around a quarter. Furthermore, this proposal completely ignores the country’s priorities and the future of young people. Are we sure, for example, that it would not have been fairer to tax inheritances transparently and thereby increase funding for schools?”