Retirees receiving almost 2,800 euros per 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 retirees and the government.
In the final stretch of the year, it is decided how much they will increase 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 sustenance a person has after years and years of working, after having to contribute a minimum and seeing how the system adjusts certain withholdings, 'sanctions' and complements.
The importance of having a decent pension is based on the quality of life that a person can have after the end of his or her long working life.
In the middle of Easter Week, the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration published the pension expenditure data for the month of March.
Obviously, the current government has to boast of an increase in the final amount that does little to adjust to 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,
This figure is 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, the politically motivated revaluation and the current national employment scenario lead us to a dead end in which any second is a certain amount more than millions of euros leaving the State coffers.
The Ministry's data is not to be sniffed at.
Yes, pensions went up in January and any annual comparison shows an increase.
The problem is not that pensions are going up, but rather 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 regime has an average retirement pension of only 960.4 euros per month, a derisory amount with which it is impossible to enjoy the post-labor season.
All those pensioners who contribute to the General Regime are light years away: 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 upward, hiding a disparate and variable system as the amount is adjusted on a personalized basis.
Employees who contributed to the Maritime Regime had an average retirement pension of 1,592.3 euros in March, while once again the highest earners were those who dedicated their lives to 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 collected in Spain: 3,175 euros per month in 2024.
Statistics must be analyzed and compared
The Government itself confirms, in its official data, that the trend of increasing pension expenditure is not justified in providing good conditions for new pensioners, but rather in maintaining the amount of the amounts already allocated.
In other words, while all the data are increasing, there is an average figure that is falling, and this is certainly the one that should concern us most in 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 increase minimally, in the computation of new retirement benefits there is a sharp decline. We will have to see what trend continues, in case it is confirmed that the new retirees are 'poorer' than those who stopped working several years ago.