Italy readies pension reform, may end early retirement scheme ahead of schedule
Italy is preparing to reform its pension system again to make it more flexible for those who want to leave work early, officials say, and the changes may include ending ahead of time a costly but underused 2018 plan that lowered the minimum retirement age.
With a steadily growing army of retirees, pensions in Italy are a national obsession and one of the most frequently debated topics on television talk shows. Under the 2018 “quota 100” plan, people can draw a pension if they have paid in 38 years of contributions as long as they are 62 years old – the sum of the two figures giving the “100” of the plan’s name.
The plan was budgeted to cost almost 20 billion euros ($22.2 billion) over three years until 2021, when it is due to expire. But some in the government are pushing to drop it at the end of this year to save money. With one of the world’s oldest populations, Italy spends more than 16% of national output on pensions, more than any other developed country except Greece, data from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development shows.
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