The Government will increase pension spending by 11.4% in 2023, to 190,687 million, to adapt them to the CPI

The pension piggy bank will be endowed with 2,957 million euros, the first income in 13 years, and the unemployment item will fall by 5.3%

MADRID, 4 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Government will allocate 190,687 million euros to pensions in 2023, which represents an increase of 11.4% compared to the 2022 item, due to the updating of pensions according to the CPI, which the Government estimates in an increase around 8.5%, as stated in the General State Budgets (PGE) presented this Tuesday after the Council of Ministers.

The Minister of Finance and Civil Service, María Jesús Montero, explained in the press conference after the Council of Ministers that this increase will serve to cover the incorporation of new pensioners and the revaluation of pensions according to the CPI.

The Treasury estimates that the updating of pensions will be around 8.5%, in accordance with the average inflation for November, as established by the regulations.

"The dignity of a country has to be measured in how we treat our elders and how the games behave with respect to pensions," Montero said at the press conference.

Montero has announced that the Government will transfer, for the first time in 13 years, an allocation to the Pension Reserve Fund amounting to 2,957 million euros from the Intergenerational Equity Mechanism (MEI).

This instrument, which replaced the sustainability factor, establishes an overcontribution of 0.6% for a period of ten years to fatten the so-called 'pension piggy bank' in the face of the spending tensions that the Social Security system will face with retirement of the baby boomers.

The Treasury has stressed that this contribution will not lead to an increase in the deficit in the system, since Social Security income is being favored by the rise in the minimum interprofessional salary (SMI), the better composition of employment derived from the positive impact of the labor reform and "good management" of Social Security.

In 2023, the State will increase current transfers to the Ministry of Inclusion and Social Security by around 2,540 million euros to cover the increase in contributory and non-contributory pensions and the provision for child care.

Together with the pension item, the amount allocated to promoting employment goes from the 7,648 million euros contemplated in the 2022 PGE to the 8,029 million euros for 2023, 8.9% more. Of this year's amount, 586 million euros come from European funds and 7,743 million from national resources.

Within the actions of social protection and promotion, the only item that falls is the one dedicated to unemployment. The PGE 2023 will dedicate 21,278 million euros to this end, 5.3% less than in 2022 due to improvements in the labor market.