The median effective retirement age in June was 64.8, after six months into the law. pension reformhigher than in previous years, but still below the statutory retirement age, which was 66 years and two months in 2022.

According to social security data, From January to June, 159,630 people retired, of which 116,011 (72.7%) were under the age of 66.although this amount includes both early retirees and people over 37 years old and three-month contributions who could stop working at 65 years old.

From the progressive increase in the retirement age going into effect in 2013 until it reaches 67 in 2028, the median age has remained stable at around 64.2 years until 2019 when it rose to 64.4 to pass to 64.57 in 2020 and 64.65 in 2021. Although in the first half of the year, when the average retirement age was 64.8 years, this should have already affected the pension reform approved by the Government and entered into force on January 1.

age increase

In statements to Efe, the Minister for Integration, Social Security and Migration, José Luis Escrivá, explains that although this is too short a period for a full assessment, the pension reform is “one of the reasons behind this appeal. However, he adds that gradual increase in the age of majority this also affects the approximation of the actual retirement age.

According to Social Security calculations, the changes introduced by the pension reform will raise the effective retirement age by 2 years by 2050 to 66.5 years, still below the legal retirement age, which will reach 67 in 2027.

Unions, for their part, see this clearly and point to improved penalties for early retirement as the main reason for this average delay in retirement age, including the possibility of retiring every month of the past two years rather than every month. quarter.

Also tougher punishments, but only for those who retire 24 or 23 months before reaching the age of majority, as well as for those who do this in the absence of 1, 2 or 3 months for its execution, while mitigating them in the rest of the intermediate assumptions .

More Incentives

For CCOO Secretary of Public Policy and Social Protection Carlos Bravo, “the monthly retirement payment is fundamental” because until now those who wanted to retire had to make a decision every quarter, which meant they ended up waiting retirement.

“If we were able to raise the median retirement age to 12 months, that would translate into $12 billion in social security bills, which equates to one point of GDP,” UGT Institutional and Territorial Policy Secretary Cristina Esteves said in a statement. In addition, in order to bring the real retirement age closer to that established by law, the law includes more incentives for deferred retirement with exemption from social contributions for general contingencies except due to temporary disability from the moment the employee reaches the next retirement age.

And it sets incentives for the employee to renew with a 4% increase for each year of delay, a check up to €12,000, or a combination of both, although this last option has yet to be developed before being agreed with the social department. agents .

For the Minister, in the absence of detailed data, this first half of the year revealed that the “dominant scheme” is “pay at a time”, that is, with “cheques” as a priority option. for additional pension supplements. However, the increase in pension from wages is “more interesting”, as Bravo and Estevez note, since over the life of a pensioner it can exceed the amount received by 50% if the check option is chosen, which is true many choose the second option. “They prefer birds in their hands, even if the number is smaller,” says Estevez, and this option is only beneficial if life expectancy is short, adds Bravo.