Parliament validates the pension reform with a starting point of strong imbalance in the accounts.
The Ministry of Inclusion made public this Thursday the budget execution of 2022 with this result: expenses in benefits worth 177,838 million and income from contributions of 140,282. That is, some 37,500 million difference between what is spent on pensions and other benefits and what contributors contribute. A gap that continues to be covered with transfers from the State with the justification that it is “improper expenses” of Social Security. Whatever the label, this pillar of the Spanish Welfare State continues to be a serious challenge for public coffers.
On the income side, the Ministry ensures that the aforementioned 140,282 million collected by social contributions “have reached a new all-time high.” They grow 8.2% compared to 2021 and 12.9% more than in 2019, before the pandemic. The collection exceeds the best expectations provided in the Budgets. Why that increase? “The dynamism of the labor market in 2022 has been fundamental.”
Regarding expenses, “economic benefits to families and institutions reached 177,838 million, 2.4% more than in the same period,” indicates the Ministry of José Luis Escrivá.
Of this figure, “the largest item, 163,754 million, corresponds to pensions and contributory benefits, with an increase of 2%.” And the statement highlights that if spending on pensions is analyzed exclusively, the increase is 4.9%, “3.3 points less than the growth in social contributions.”
The official deficit is much lower. The Ministry places it at 0.5% of GDP, 7,160 million. Escrivá has been a supporter since his arrival in charge of cleaning Social Security accounts as much as possible of “improper expenses” to offer less alarming figures on the pension system, but the net impact on the state coffers is the same.
On this basis, the decree of the second part of the pension reform with validation this Thursday in Parliament has already entered into force. The Government has carried out a reform with a theoretical horizon until 2050 with its usual investiture partners, the surprise abstention of Vox and the vote against the main opposition party. The leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, assured that the reform “clearly opens the door to raising contributions and lowering pensions,” according to Servimedia, despite including the revaluation with the CPI. And he justified his rejection at the birth of the decree “without information, without consensus, without the Toledo Pact, without sustainability and with all the reports from Fedea, Funcas, the Bank of Spain, other entities and above all the Independent Responsibility Authority Prosecutor against this proposal to postpone and postpone the pension debate until the year 2025».
It was validated in the Congress of Deputies with 179 votes in favor on the condition that it be processed as a bill to introduce amendments that partners like Esquerra intend to take advantage of to “improve” the reform. Against, 104 votes above all the PP and Ciudadanos and the abstention, led by Vox and Bildu, has registered 61.
The surprise has starred Vox. Its spokesman in the debate, Pablo Sáez, has described the reform as “wrong” during a critical intervention. However, the party said later that it decided to abstain from picking up the decree “some positive element” to improve the benefits of the system.
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