Pensions to increase almost 7 percent

Whilst the Government has proposed the lowest earning workers receive a 4 percent pay rise, those who have already completed their working life and receive non-contributory pensions, as well as the Minimum Living Income (IMV), will see an increase by 6.9% in 2024, while the minimum pension for widows with family responsibilities will increase by 14.1%, from the current 905.9 euro per month up to about 1,033.6 euro per month.

The Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, Elma Saiz, has reported these increases in her ‘X’ (formerly Twitter) account, from where she wanted to send a “message of tranquillity and guarantee to the pensioners of today and tomorrow.”

The second leg of the pension reform, approved in March of this year and focused on obtaining income to guarantee the sustainability of the system, also contemplated improvements in minimum contributory pensions.

Specifically, the rule establishes that these will experience, from 2024 and until 2027, a progressive increase higher than the CPI to ensure that at the end of said period they are not lower than the poverty threshold calculated for a household composed of two adults.

The average inflation for the period December 2022-November 2023 stood, in the absence of confirmation of the advanced data, at 3.8%, so any increase that exceeds that percentage will follow the path marked by the reform.

It will be precisely at this percentage, 3.8%, that contributory pensions will rise next year, based on the reform that was approved in the previous legislature and that links pensions to the evolution of the CPI.

If the same increase announced for non-contributory pensions, of 6.9%, is applied to minimum contributory pensions, the former would increase approximately between 16.5 and 100 euro per month, depending on the type of pension and personal circumstances. That of widows with family responsibilities will do so to a greater extent, with 127.7 euro more per month than in 2023, as a result of its revaluation by 14.1%.

The second vice president and Minister of Labour and Social Economy, Yolanda Díaz, has highlighted that this increase in pensions “will alleviate the difficulties of everyday life, guaranteeing more stability and security.”

“When we say that we come to improve people’s lives, it is not something abstract. We demonstrate it with facts,” remarked the second vice president of the Government.

The new Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, Elma Saiz, has called for next Monday at 10:30 a.m. the general secretaries of CCOO and UGT, Unai Sordo and Pepe Álvarez, and the presidents of CEOE and Cepyme, Antonio Garamendi and Gerardo Cuerva, as reported by union sources.

It will be the minister’s first formal meeting with the leaders of the social agents at the Social Security dialogue table since she took office, replacing José Luis Escrivá.

In this legislature, Saiz faces several challenges inherited from the pension reforms undertaken in the previous stage, as well as other new ones included in the commitments acquired by the PSOE to achieve the investiture of Pedro Sánchez as President of the Government.

In the last legislature, the previous minister of the sector carried out several major reforms for the pension system, some with the help of social agents and others with the sole support of the unions, which will continue to be deployed in the next period.

During the inauguration of her portfolio, Minister Saiz committed to continue improving minimum and non-contributory pensions, to increase the pension fund and to complete the regulation of early retirement for especially difficult or painful professions.

The new Minister of Social Security also pointed out that in this legislature it will be “key” continue rolling out the pension reform, the new self-employed contribution system and collective pension plans, “very relevant milestones” of the last legislature.

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