Pensions are one of the most significant achievements of the welfare state that must be preserved. The reduction in birth rates and the aging of the population with the increase in life expectancy – that is, the time during which one is entitled to a benefit – have increased the number of beneficiaries in recent years at a faster rate than contributors. The essential principle of the pay-as-you-go system is intergenerational solidarity: that is, working individuals finance the pensions of those who have retired.
For some time now, governments have been taking measures to ensure the system is sustainable. One of these was to progressively delay the official retirement age to 67 years. Currently, it is 66 years and 10 months, except for long careers with more than 38 years and 3 months of contributions, who can access it at 65 years with 100% of the pension to which they are entitled.
Apart from structural initiatives, others have been launched within strategies that promote the voluntary delay of retirement from the labor market and that facilitate the transition from the labor market to inactivity. This means that a part of the pension is received, but at the same time, contributions continue to be made to the common fund, thereby mitigating a part of the deficit in contributions from the working population.
It is the so-called active retirement, which seems a contradictio in terminis, as it mixes a stage linked to inactivity with activity, but in summary it consists of reconciling receiving part of a pension with remaining in the labor market and, therefore, contributing through contributions, which represents a relief for Social Security. Through a royal decree, Pedro Sánchez's executive has expanded the scope of this formula: on the one hand, it includes the self-employed, and on the other, it modifies the proportion of time that can be dedicated to work.
According to the Minister of Security and Migration, Elma Saiz, the objective of this measure is to facilitate that retired people can return to work without losing their pension, with the idea of contributing to an "active aging". And she added that the aim is for workers to "have more and better options when retiring or combining work and pension".
One of the novelties of the regulation, which is expected to come into force in three months, consists of modifying the proportion of time that the pensioner will be able to combine work and pension: it will be between 33% and 80% of the workday, and until now it was between 25% and 75%. The amount of the pension will be reduced "in inverse proportion to the reduction in the workday". In addition, incentives are incorporated to make it more attractive. It is, in short, another solution for the sustainability of the system, always taking into account that it is a voluntary formula.
