Few contributions, many pensions: alarm on social security accounts in Sardinia
The average age is rising, the birth rate is stagnating: benefit payments are at risk
In Sardinia every year, according to estimates by the Social Security Itineraries Study Center, pension checks for 6.12 billion euros are paid, compared to just 3.85 billion in contributions paid by active workers. The ratio between the two figures is 63%, a percentage far from the 75% which according to consolidated numbers allows for a balance in the pension system.
The mechanism, in fact, provides that the pensions of those who have already left the world of work will be paid with the contributions paid by the workers, and tomorrow there will be other young people who will take the place of those of today.
The equilibrium holds if there is - more or less - a correspondence between the number of checks paid and people active in the working galaxy.
What affects the "hole" in the Sardinian pension balance? Various factors, but what is especially worrying are the estimates for the future: the pension imbalance risks increasing dramatically due to the low birth rate and the increase in the average age. Two figures that see Sardinia at the top of the rankings.
Michele Ruffi
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