Social Security, the body whose financial imbalance is a headache for public accounts, improved its deficit in 2021 to reduce it to 0.9% of GDP, that is, 11,192 million euros compared to 13,131 million the previous year.

The increase in State transfers to finance the so-called

"improper expenses"

and to support the balance of the body that pays more than 10 million pensions, on the one hand, and the strong increase in income from

contributions, which grew by

10% to reach the record figure of 131,990 million euros

, 12,000 million more.

The department led by

José Luis Escrivá

explains that this amount is equivalent to 11% of GDP and doubles the agency's own revenue forecasts, which expected growth of 4.3%.

Social Security, which this year will apply a surcharge to contributions on account of the Intergenerational Equity Mechanism approved in the fall, ended last December with

19.8 million affiliates.

However, reaching record income from contributions equivalent to 11% of GDP

is not enough to meet the organization's obligations

.

Expenditure on benefits grew by 5.9% in 2021 to reach 173,814 million euros, an amount much higher than the contribution of contributions.

For this reason, Social Security received from the State a

transfer of multimillion-dollar resources that amounted to 47,991 million euros

, 5.3% more than the previous year.

These transfers are part of the coverage of the financial health of the organization that the State makes through fiscal means to assume what are called "improper expenses" of Social Security, that is, those subsidies and benefits assigned to the main pillar of the State social spending but do not have a specific source of income to support them.

However, even financing these expenses via taxes,

the situation of the organization that pays the pensions continues to have a deficit in its contributory part

, sustained by contributions.

Thus, spending on contributory pensions in 2021 amounted to

160,558 million euros

.

In total, until last February, 9.9 million contributory pensions had been recognized.

The average retirement benefit amounted to 1,248 euros, 5.4% more than last year.

Thus, the reduction of the body's nominal deficit faces quite a challenge if one takes into account that

the contributory deficit is much higher and will face a serious risk in 2022 derived from the lack of control of inflation

and the Government's commitment to revalue pensions according to the evolution of the CPI.

Until last February, the pension reform already involved a bill of 9,453 million euros if the price forecasts for 2022 were met. On the other hand, that of income, the salary moderation requested by the Government would widen the deficit by limiting the increase in Social Security income from contributions.

In this sense, the revaluation of pensions will remain, by far, the main factor that drives system spending, well above the increase in the number of pensioners or the effect produced by the substitution of discharges for discharges with benefits superiors.

And hardly, with an inflation that is already close to two digits, it will be able to be covered with transfers from the State.

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