The problem to guarantee ten million pensions a rise in 2020 of their benefits above the legally established pressures the Government of Pedro Sánchez seven weeks after the repetition of the electoral call on April 28, elections with which he aspires to widen its majority.

According to sources close to the Administration, the Ministry of Labor has transferred in recent weeks consultations to the State Advocacy to have legal support in the event that it decides to decree a revaluation of pensions under the IPC . In this way, it would sort out the Pension Revaluation Index (IRP), the established legal formula that sets a revaluation of 0.25% while Social Security remains in deficit.

The pensioner groups that have mobilized to tear the parties from the commitment that their purchasing power will not deteriorate have been demanding a change in the Social Security Law for two years, ending the limits on the revaluation of their benefits. "At the moment there is no answer," said sources familiar with the procedures.

The Ministry of Labor flatly denied having transferred an official consultation to the State Advocacy and less while negotiating the investiture, although they admitted that "informal consultations" may have taken place. On December 28, Sanchez already approved a 1.7% increase in pensions through a Royal Decree Law, justifying it as a measure "of extraordinary and urgent need" that could not wait for the approval of the General State Budgets , which two months later were rejected. The revaluation had a cost of 2,700 million and was accompanied by other measures in labor and employment that opened the way to the so-called social Fridays, in reference to a battery of decrees approved on Fridays, after the Council of Ministers.

From a legal point of view, the need for a backing from the State Advocacy is explained by the fact that last December Sánchez presided over a Government in full power to decree a measure that had already been foreseen by his predecessor, Mariano Rajoy , thanks to a pact between the Minister of Finance Cristóbal Montoro and the PNV. Today, the budget route has been ruled out and after giving up an investiture session, the Government of Sánchez is in operation at least until next November and it is doubtful that it can carry out a decree that would compromise the budget margin of the Executive that leaves of the next elections.

The consultation is aimed at knowing to what extent it would be valid in these circumstances to link the measure to formulas that justify the decree for reasons of "extreme and urgent need" or even "general interest."

Beyond the legal scope, doubts about the revaluation of pensions linking them to the CPI also extend to the economic field, given that despite the higher income from contributions, the Social Security debt will exceed 16,000 million euros this year , according to estimates of the Independent Authority of Fiscal Responsibility (AIReF). The Government itself undertook last December to accompany the revaluation with a restructuring of the agency's costs in six months so that the Social Security that pays part of the pensions on credit is sustainable. After two months, however, he called elections.

On the opposite side, the certainty that the IRP must be overcome and the benefits linked to the CPI is almost unanimous from the political point of view . No party risks opposing a group with the electoral weight of pensioners, as Valerio himself has acknowledged, that last August promised to find a legal solution to pensions after a meeting with UGT and CCOO. Pensioners' groups have already advanced that they will maintain their pressure through mobilizations this fall to ensure "decent pensions."

The route of the decree is also the one requested by the unions that represent the officials to demand that their wage increases be applied despite the political blockade. CSIF, UGT and CCOO have communicated in writing to Sánchez that they remain expectant of a "new royal decree of the Government in office" that resolves its uncertainty. "We are in an absolutely anomalous situation as a result of the repetition of elections, since we would foreseeably begin the year 2020 with accounts approved in 2018 and the first signs of an economic slowdown," says the CSIF officials union, which beyond The remuneration of public employment extends the effects of political "paralysis" to "fundamental areas of our welfare state".

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  • Social Security
  • Christopher Montoro
  • State's general budgets
  • PNV
  • Mariano Rajoy
  • Pensions

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