Pensions, why haven’t the promised increases (up to 6.4%) been seen for 5 months? – Corriere.it

The increase in pensions is a topic strongly supported by the majority, especially by Forza Italia which also had it in its electoral programme. Before reaching the coveted threshold of one thousand euros a month, to which Silvio Berlusconi often referred, the Meloni government with the last budget law aimed to a first target of 600 euros for those over 75, in 2023 alone. An increase that should have arrived in January, but which – in May – has not yet been seen and it seems that the reason lies in the difficulty in establishing a defined audience of beneficiaries.

What does the budget law provide?

In detail, the rule established that for checks lower than or equal to the minimum INPS treatment, the increase for 2023 is 1.5%. For the over 75s the increase reaches up to 6.4%, going from 563.74 euros to 572.19 euros per month for everyone and 599.82 for those over 75 years old. The provision also establishes that for 2024 – completely canceling the increases applied in 2023 – it starts again with an increase of 2.7% compared to the new amount of the INPS minimum treatment (yet to be defined) regardless of age, about 15 euros more per month. In 2025 we would return to normal with the decay of all increases. Therefore, these are provisional increases, lasting two years, which move independently of the revaluation to inflation (the rate of which has been set at 7.3% for 2023 and 5.5% in 2024).

Increases from July

There have been no official communications, but from the Ministry of Labor we learn that the reason for the delay is precisely because the text does not allow for a more precise identification of an audience that has currently been estimated at around 2 million pensioners. At the beginning of April, INPS issued a circular containing the general criteria for the application of the law and which was followed by further exchanges with the Ministry of Labor to define some outstanding points. The loose ends have been cleared and it appears that with the July installment the first increases could arrive, even in June in the event of a strong acceleration, also including the arrears from January 2023. Overall, for the state coffers the cost amounts to 480 million euros in 2023 and 379 million in 2024.