The lack of government limits the increase in pensions to 0.25% and paralyzes the rise of officials

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• Investiture failed.The political blockade leads Spain to another year of budget extension

Without a government with full functions, the increase in pensions for next year will be limited to 0.25% set by law and officials, despite the existing agreement for a three-year improvement plan that includes 2020, will not register any type of salary increase . The reason is that both processes require a capacity for action that a provisional Executive does not have, so if the current political blockade is prolonged, both public workers and pensioners will be directly affected.

In the case of pensioners, the legislation that is still in force is that which, in the case of a system deficit, benefits will only increase by 0.25%, that is, the rate of revaluation of pensions. In 2018 and 2019, and as a result of the Mariano Rajoy Government negotiations with the PNV to get their support for the 2018 Budgets, it was established that the improvement would be 1.6%.

Last year, and after the change of the Executive, Pedro Sánchez decided to take the ascent, up to 1.7%, to "avoid the loss of purchasing power" of pensioners. And for this, the already applied increase of 1.6% will not only allow pensions to maintain their power but will also report a significant gain since inflation will not exceed 1%, according to estimates by the Bank of Spain or the Commission European

But by 2020 there is no approved measure, and a functioning government cannot process " a norm with the rank of law that allows raising the rise ", as explained by Carlos Bravo, secretary of Public Policies and Social Protection of CCOO. Therefore, if the blockage remains, the increase will be 0.25% .

The officials, meanwhile, have the aforementioned agreement signed by former minister Cristóbal Montoro with union representatives, and which established a salary increase of up to 1.95% in 2017; between 2.25% and 2.75% for this exercise; and a minimum of 2.3% and a notable maximum of 3.85% in 2020. In order to reach that maximum, a series of variables that seemed complicated to occur in their entirety had to be met, but it is likely that a Some of them are reached, such as 0.5% linked to the deficit.

However, it will matter little whether they are met or not if there is no Executive that has legislative capacity and validates the agreement, union sources say. Nor would it be possible, they add, an extension of this year's rise, but what would happen is that the officials would not have any improvement .

Elections in November?

It is difficult to think, it is true, that no Government is formed in all of 2020, but recent precedents show that parliamentary fragmentation has greatly hindered and prolonged the processes of constitution of the different Executives. Right now, it is not easy for Pedro Sánchez to be invested in September, a situation that would lead to the holding of new elections in November .

At that point, both pensioners and civil servants would start the year with a 0.25% rise and without any improvement, respectively, and could only aim for a retroactive improvement over the next year at the time when the Government can approve the different measures or include it in your Budgets.

There would be a possibility to curb this situation, union sources added, which would involve the presentation of a bill or a bill by a group in Congress. But this should be done before a possible dissolution of the courts, something that will happen at the end of next month if Sanchez is not invested. And, in addition, there is not even an agreed position on what should be the increase in pensions, so the unions themselves consider this route very unlikely .

In this way, the political blockade will cause a new and important problem and pensioners and officials will join a list that already includes, for example, the communities and the 4.7 billion that they should receive this year from the deliveries on account or the own State's general budgets.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project