2023-04-30 09:12:38
In barely a decade the Basque pension deficit has doubled from 2,000 million in 2013 to 4,300 million euros. The gap between the benefits that are paid and the income from social security contributions does not stop growing in a society that is at the bottom of Europe in terms of birth rates and that also has the highest pensions in all of Spain. The linking of benefits with inflation and the retirement of the ‘baby boom’ generation threatens to further widen the hole, while waiting to see the effect of the reform promoted by the central government, which reinforces income with surcharges on companies. The numbers show the problems of a system overloaded by a very aged population that increasingly receives higher pensions. In 2013, the bill for contributory benefits (pensions, temporary disability…) totaled 7,968 million and contributions amounted to 5,873 million, according to Social Security data. In 2022 the expense item had grown by 39% to 11,095 million and that of income only 16%, to 6,787. This difference explains the growth of the hole. All this despite the fact that in the aforementioned decade there has been a spectacular recovery in the labor market after the financial crisis, reaching an all-time high for employed persons. Right in 2013 the comeback began after the debacle, with growth only interrupted by the pandemic, when the pension deficit even exceeded 4,700 million. The number of contributors has increased in these ten years from 875,000 to 994,000, 13%. Desktop Code Image for mobile, amp and app Mobile Code AMP Code APP Code The number of pensions has grown less, 9.5% to 570,300, but of course, in the years of the crisis it did not suffer a setback as in the case of the contributors. There are more pensioners and the amount of benefits has also increased significantly. The average retirement from the general regime has gone from 1,442 euros to 1,762, 22% more, while the salaries that support contributions have increased by half, 12%. Reform of the system The hole has already doubled and threatens to grow much larger. This year the average pension has risen by more than 9% to 1,916 euros in the case of retirement from the general regime due to the revaluation of benefits with the CPI. The bill, therefore, fattens considerably just as the ‘baby boom’ generation begins to retire. The reform promoted by José Luis Escrivá and approved in Congress plans to face this challenge with a rise in prices, among other measures, but there are serious doubts that it will be enough. Organizations such as Airef or the Bank of Spain have questioned it by triggering spending. THE KEY Euskadi is responsible for 11% of the national hole although its population only accounts for 4.5% The gap between benefits and contributions is common throughout Spain but especially serious in Euskadi for various reasons: its population is older and pensions are the highest in the system. It is true that the contribution base of Basque workers is also the highest, but it does not compensate. In fact, the benefits paid in the Basque Country account for 7.3% of the total while contributions only represent 6%. As a consequence of this, the Basque Country is responsible for 11% of the national gap between contributory benefits and contributions. Specifically, out of a total hole of 38,296 million euros, the aforementioned 4,300 million correspond to the Basque Country. That weight of 11% is more than double that of its population in the national group. Related news standard Yes One of the most unsustainable systems in Spain Ana Barandiaran Despite the historical record of employed, the Basque Country has 1.74 workers for each pension, the sixth lowest ratio, far removed from the 2.9 of Madrid This greater imbalance of the accounts in Euskadi has fueled the thesis that the rest of Spain is financing Basque pensions since, given the deficit, the State is increasing transfers to Social Security, with a budgeted injection of 38,000 million this 2023. «We do not know if This figure is included or not in the Quota since there is an absolute lack of transparency in its calculation. The logical thing is that it is there”, explains Ignacio Zubiri, professor of Public Finance at the UPV. However, he adds, “there is a clear tendency to underestimate what the community has to contribute and to overestimate what it has to subtract.” Quota Along the same lines, Ángel de la Fuente, executive director of the Foundation for Applied Economics Studies (Fedea), laments that there is no transparency about the Quota “but the impression is that the Basque deficit is paid among the others.” The Quota, which is the contribution that the Basque Country makes to the State each year for non-transferred powers, was agreed at 1,472 million euros for 2022, a figure very similar to that of the previous year and which is the reference for the next five years. What is clear is that the Basque deficit in pensions is much higher than the national average and the hole will get bigger in the coming years.
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