Pensioners receiving almost 2,800 euros a month in pensions

The Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration pays out a total of 12,693.1 million euros in contributory benefits in March

Pensions are the great battle horse between pensioners and the government.

In the final stretch of the year, it is decided how much they will rise from January onwards, and then throughout the calendar the established amounts are paid periodically, with their two extraordinary payments.

In many cases, the pension is the only livelihood a person has after years and years of working, after having to contribute a minimum and seeing how the system adjusts certain deductions, 'penalties' and supplements.

The importance of having a decent pension is based on the quality of life a person can have after the end of a long working life.

In the middle of Easter week, the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration published the data on pension expenditure for the month of March.

Obviously, the current government has to boast of an increase in the final amount that does little to match the new standard of living brought about by the annual increase in costs, coupled with the effects of the pandemic and the subsequent war in Ukraine.

Pensions in March amounted to a total volume of 12,693.1 million euros,

A figure 25 million higher than the same official figure reported in the previous month.

Thus, public statistics show that the average pension in Spain is set at 1,251.5 euros per month, an amount that comes from combining all the contributory benefits paid periodically by the State.

It is only a reference amount and its trend confirms that pensions are a kind of 'black hole' to which more and more public money has to be allocated.

The lack of measures with real effect on workers' pensions, politically motivated revaluation and the current national employment scenario leads us to a dead end in which any second is a certain amount of millions more euros coming out of the state coffers.

The Ministry's data is not to be sniffed at.

Yes, pensions went up in January and any year-on-year comparison shows an increase.

The problem is not that pensions are going up, but how the amount to be paid in is adjusted and whether the increase covers the current cost of living.

As usual, and without provoking any anger, the worst off are the self-employed, whose scheme has an average retirement pension of only 960.4 euros per month, a derisory amount on which it is impossible to enjoy the post-retirement season.

All pensioners with contributions in the General Scheme are already light years behind: 1,598 euros on average in March, one euro more than in February.

The truth is that these statistics tend to vary little from month to month.

But they allow us to see that the trend is always upwards, hiding a disparate and variable system as the amount is adjusted on a case-by-case basis.

Employees who contributed to the Maritime Scheme had an average retirement pension of 1,592.3 euros in March, while once again the highest earners were those who had spent their lives in mining.

Workers in the Coal Mining Regime had an average amount in March of 2,797.2 euros.

These almost 2,800 euros of pension are gradually approaching the upper limit of the highest pension that can be paid in Spain: 3,175 euros per month in 2024.

Statistics need to be analysed and compared

The government itself confirms, in its official data, that the trend of increasing pension expenditure is not justified by giving good conditions to new pensioners, but by maintaining the amount of the amounts already allocated.

In other words, while all the figures are rising, there is an average figure that is falling, and this is certainly the one that should be of most concern for the future. The average amount of new registrations in March was 1,562.7 euros, 81 euros less than the same figure for February.

While all the amounts are increasing minimally, there has been a sharp decline in the new retirement benefits. It remains to be seen what trend continues, in case it is confirmed that the new retirees are 'poorer' than those who stopped working several years ago.