The reform to facilitate an alternative pathway to Social Security for alternative mutualists is now close to becoming a reality. The Senate approved the bill with modifications this Thursday, which will be submitted for a vote in Congress next week.
The initiative will therefore be ready for publication in the Official State Gazette (BOE) and its subsequent entry into force. However, the definition of many of its aspects is subject to regulatory development for which the Government will not need parliamentary arithmetic.
In fact, one of the changes introduced by the Senate, and which will be examined by Congress on Tuesday, is that the Executive will have to approve this regulation within three months.
What changes does the Senate introduce?
Retirees are excluded. The Upper House reinstates the exclusion of mutualists who have already decided to retire and receive any type of pension, public or from the mutual society, with the exception of widow's pensions.
Regulation in three months. The Government will be obliged to approve the regulatory development of the rule within three months. The initiative obliges the Executive to determine the access criteria for the pathway in this decree, after Congress eliminated any entry barrier.
The 1 to 1 thing. For the purpose of calculating the regulatory base of the pension – its amount, determined by the contribution history at the time of retirement — the Senate has consolidated the calculation of each full and contributed month to the mutual society when it was a mandatory system for registered professions (until approximately 1995) as a full month and registered with Social Security (regardless of the contributions made compared to the contributions that would have been required).
Boost for the elderly. For those born before 1975, each full month contributed to the mutual society will also be counted as a full month registered in the RETA. This is a proposal agreed upon by PSOE and Sumar that was suppressed in the last votes in Congress. Now the Senate is reinstating them.
No going back. The initiative now specifies a consequence for alternative mutualists who meet the requirements and decide to join the pathway: enrollment in Social Security will be mandatory and irreversible.
Also if there was a change. An amendment ensures that the pathway also applies to registered professionals who have been registered in more than one mutual society.
The range returns. This regulation must also determine the coefficient to be applied to contributions transferred by mutual members when calculating the contribution period and, therefore, how much pension they are entitled to.
The Government managed to set it at 0.77, Congress erased any reference, and now the Senate recovers the range initially proposed by the PSOE: it will be between 0.67 and 0.87, if the amendment prospers. This coefficient is justified to discount Social Security contingencies to which mutual members have not been entitled due to being in an alternative system.