- Business
- Childbirth & Education
- Legal Formalities
- Motoring
- Other
- Pensions & Benefits
- Property & Accommodation
- Taxes
- Airports and Airlines Spain
- Paramount Theme Park Murcia Spain
- Corvera International Airport Murcia Spain
- Join us for Tea on the Terrace
- When Expat Eyes Are Smiling
- Meet Wincham at The Homes, Gardens & Lifestyle Show, Calpe
- QROPS 2014
- Spain Increases IHT in Valencia & Murcia
- Removals to Spain v Exports from Spain
- The Charm of Seville
- Gibraltar Relations
- Retiro Park : Madrid
- Community Insurance in Spain
- Calendar Girls
- Considerations when Insuring your Boat in Spain
- QROPS – HMRC Introduces changes that create havoc in the market place
- QROPS – All Change From April 2012
- Liva & Laia : 15th November
Earlier this week the Government of Spain announced details of reforms to the state pension system, which were slightly less harsh than initially expected.
The measures put forward by Labor Minister, Fátima Báñez, to unions and employers groups involves a floor and a ceiling for annual revaluations of pension entitlement. The minimum yearly increase would be 0.25%, and the maximum would be the annual inflation rate plus 0.25 percentage points in order to reflect the outlays and revenues of the pension system.
Báñez also proposed that the sustainability factors used in calculating pensions, which take into account changes in life expectancy, be introduced in 2019. The panel of experts recommended that the sustainability factor be introduced as soon as possible, preferably in 2014.
The sustainability factor had already been included in the reforms to the state pension system introduced in 2011 under former PM José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, which include a gradual increase in the official retirement age from 65 to 67 by 2027. However, the reform left the definition of the sustainability factor for later.
The panel of experts concluded that revaluations of pensions needed to be decoupled from inflation and linked instead to the state of the economic cycle, and for the amount of pension received to be linked to life expectancy.
The government believes the economy is on track to emerge from recession this year. A further radical reform of the pension system could have sparked further social unrest and another general strike in Spain, and possibly cost it votes.