Pension spending reaches a record figure of 12,732 million in May, 6.3% more
In this month of May, Social Security allocated the record figure of 12,732.2 million euros for the payment of the ordinary monthly payroll of contributory pensions, 6.3% more than in the same month of 2023, as reported this Tuesday by the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration.
The ordinary monthly pension payroll exceeded 12,000 million euros for the first time in July 2023 and this month it once again marks a new record after the increase in contributory pensions by 3.8% for this year 2024.
The Department headed by Elma Saiz estimates that pension spending was at 11.5% of GDP in Maythe same percentage as in 2023 and below the spending of 2022 (11.7% of GDP), 2021 (12.1%) and 2020 (12.4%).
Of the 12,732 million euros that were dedicated in May to the ordinary payroll of contributory pensions, almost three quarters (73.1%) were used to pay retirement pensionswhich totaled 9,313.3 million euros, 6.7% more than in May of last year.
To the pensions of widowhood 2,105.4 million euros were allocated, 5.3% more than a year ago, while 1,108.4 million euros were allocated to permanent disability benefits (+4.7%).
For its part, the payment of benefits for orphanhood entailed an amount of 171.1 million euros (+5%), and benefits for family members totaled 34.1 million euros (+8.5%).
The main pension, retirement
In May of this year, 10,150,528 contributory pensions were paid, 1.3% more than a year ago, to almost 9.2 million pensioners, 1.2% more. Of the total pensions, 6.5 million were retirement pensions; 2.3 million were widow’s pensions; 953,936 were permanently disabled; 340,503 were orphan’s pensions, and 46,097 were for family members.
Of the total pensioners (9.18 million As of May 1 of this year), 4.6 million are men and 4.5 million are women. The number of pensions per pensioner is 1.1.
The main pension received is retirement for 6.3 million people, of which 60% are men; widowhood benefit is the main benefit for 1.5 million people (96% are women); permanent disability is the main pension for 949,430 pensioners; that of orphans for 322,571 people, and that of favor of relatives for 45,502 pensioners.
The average retirement pension: 1,441 euros
Behind the increase in pensions with the CPI Applied since the beginning of the year, the average retirement pension increased by 4.8% year-on-year in May, to 1,441.5 euros per month.
In the General Regime, The average retirement pension amounted to 1,601 euros per month, compared to 962.4 euros per month for the Self-Employed Regime. In Coal Mining, the average retirement pension is 2,804 euros per month and in Sea Mining, 1,597 euros.
The average amount of new retirement registrations in the system amounted to 1,479.7 euros per month in the month of April 2024 (latest data available).
Of the new retirement registrations produced in the first months of the year (110,479), 69% were of ordinary age (76,275), while 10.5% correspond to the delayed retirement modality, compared to 4.8% in 2019.
Early retirements decrease
On the contrary, according to the Ministry, the number of early retirements has been reduced “considerably“, since 30.9% of the new registrations registered in April were early retirements, when a year ago they were 41%.
For its part, the average pension of the system, which includes the different types of pension (retirement, permanent disability, widowhood, orphanhood and for family members), increased almost 5% year-on-year, reaching 1,254.3 euros per month as of May 1 of this year.
Likewise, the average pension of widowhood It reached 896.2 euros per month in May, with an increase of 5.2% compared to the amount a year before.
The Ministry has also reported that in April (latest data available) the average file resolution time It has been 8.45 days in the case of retirement pensions and 9.61 days in the case of widowhood.
In this sense, the Department headed by Elma Saiz has recalled that, by law, The maximum resolution period is 90 days for both retirement and widow’s pensions.
On the other hand, the number of pensions belonging to passive classes in force at the end of April of this year (latest data available) was 710,138, a figure 2.2% higher than that of the same month in 2023. The monthly payroll of these pensions amounted to 1,577.6 million euros, 7 .4% more.
The State Passive Classes Regime fundamentally includes the military personnel and officials of the General State Administrationthe Administration of Justice, the General Courts and other constitutional or state bodies, as well as officials transferred to the autonomous communities.
Gender Gap Plugin
As of May 1, 752,061 pensions received the gender gap supplement, whose objective is gradually correct the difference which occurs between the average pension received by a man and that received by a woman.
The average monthly amount of this pension supplement, received 90% by women, is 71 euros. Of the 752,061 supplemented pensions, 23.9% correspond to pensioners with a child (179,919); 47.1% with two children (353,609); 18.9%, with three (142,335), 10.1% (76,198), with four children.
This supplement, in force since February 2021, consists of a fixed amount that, after revaluation for 2024, amounts to 33.2 euros per month per child. It is requested at the same time as the pension is requested.
