Government, pensions: what the Fornero law is and what it provides

The Fornero reform, included in the Monti government’s ‘Salva Italia’ maneuver, has made the definitive transition from the salary system to the contributory system, already partially introduced by the Dini Reform. In the first system, which is more convenient for the worker (and more expensive for the system), the pension is calculated as a percentage of the last salary. With the contribution system, on the other hand, the greater the contributions paid during the career, the higher the pension allowances. With the Fornero reform, the two retirement criteria of seniority and years of contributions paid remain unchanged. With the first criterion, a pension is obtained at the age of 67. Fundamental requirement is that of at least 20 years of contributions paid. For those who want to retire early, the years of minimum contributions are no longer 40, but 42 years and 10 months of contributions for men and 41 years and 10 months for women. In general, the reform tends to favor a postponed exit from work with gradual incentives up to the age of 70. For those who retire earlier, there are disadvantages on retirement from the age of 62 and in any case it is forbidden to leave work if the social security allowance is not equal to at least 1.5 times the social allowance of the INPS (approximately 468 euros therefore for pensions of at least 1404 euros approximately). Nine interventions were necessary to protect the ‘so-called’ exodus: safeguard rules to protect the types of workers in situations of need, against which the raising of pension requirements would have resulted in the loss of both salary and pension. Subsequently, the Fornero Law was superseded by Quota 100. The possibility of retiring was provided for in the presence of two requirements: 62 years of age and at least 38 years of contributory seniority. We then moved to Quota 102, which raised the age requirement to be able to apply for retirement from 62 to 64 years, leaving unchanged the need to have 38 years of paid contributions. Quota 102 expires at the end of the year. And, without interventions, we return to the Fornero Law.