futures public pension funds They are still in the workshop, although they are very close to rolling out: on February 1, the Executive sent the social agents a new draft of this project by which the Government seeks to promote, with the support of the State, the employment pension plans, which companies, administrations and professional organizations open for their employees and associates. The novelty of this last text, to which El Periódico de España, a newspaper of the same group, Iberian press, as this newspaper, has had access, is that it includes part of the complaints and contributions that unions and employers made to the previous document, of January 17, which had been coldly received.
Specifically, in response to the objection that the social partners play little part in the management of the funds, the department of José Luis Escrivá offers to increase its presence in the supervisory and control body thereof; the advantage that was given in the previous document to non-profit entities compared to the rest when selecting a manager (something that especially irritated the insurance and banking employers) is withdrawn, new incentives for companies to commit to employment plans and the contribution system becomes more flexible.
More social presence
According to the latest text, the Special Control Commission (CCE) of the public pension funds, which watches over their smooth running, will be composed of thirteen members, of which four will be proposed by the unions, four by employers and five by the Ministry of Inclusion. There is thus more presence of the social agents than that foreseen in the previous draft, in which a CCE of eleven members, three union members, three employers’ associations and five ministerial members, was proposed.
The new document does not change the composition of the project’s key body, the Promotion and Monitoring Commission, but refine your design a little more: It will continue to be made up of nine career officials -five from Inclusion, and one from each of the Treasury, Labor, Economy and Ecological Transition- but this time it is specified that their level must be at least “Deputy Director General and assimilated”. It is also provided that they will be elected by the corresponding Secretary of State of each department. His mission will continue to be to boost funds and control the entire system.
One of the key functions of the Promotion and Monitoring Commission is the designation of the management entities that will administer the public pension funds, and in this latest draft a paragraph that was added in the previous one and that caused great outrage in CEOE: the one that provided that “a higher score must be awarded to managing entities that have the status of non-profit entities & rdquor; in the selection process. This gave an advantage to organizations such as mutual societies over bank managers and insurance companies, which with the disappearance of that wording will be able to compete under the same conditions.
New incentives
Another novelty included in the latest text is an incentive for companies to contribute to employment plans -not only those covered by the public sector- for their workers: that part of what is paid to them in these savings vehicles stay exempt from payment to Social Security, as occurs with travel allowances or compensation for transfer or dismissal. Specifically, it is excluded from the calculation of the contribution base “a limited amount & rdquor; of business contributions, which in this case is “the amount resulting from multiplying by nine the quota resulting from applying to the minimum daily contribution base of group 8 of the General Social Security Scheme for common contingencies, the general rate of contribution to charge of the company for the coverage of common contingencies & rdquor ;.
The new text also includes a redesign of maximum contributions with tax benefits that can be made to employment plans, with the aim of giving the worker more flexibility. The annual cap will continue to be 8,500 euros, as it has been up to now, but the employee’s contribution will not be limited to being equal to or less than that of the company, but may contribute more if the company’s contributions are small.
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Until now, if the company contributed -for example- 500 euros a year, the worker could add another 500 euros or less. On the other hand, with the system provided for in the draft, if the company contributes 500 euros per year or less, the employee will be able to enter the plan out of pocket. up to 2.5 times the business amount. If the employer contributes between 500 and 1,000 euros, the employee will be able to enter twice as much; for business disbursements between 1,000 and 1,500 euros, the multiplier coefficient for the worker is 1.5; and finally, for company contributions of more than 1,500 euros per year, the current system is maintained whereby the employee can make a maximum equal contribution. In any case, the current system is also maintained for workers with a salary equal to or greater than 60,000 euros per year.
In the ministry they do not reveal when they want to take this project to the Council of Ministers, but government sources point out that this last text has already been seen in the General Commission of Secretaries of State and Undersecretaries last Thursday, which opens the door to immediate referral. The Government wants this initiative to reach the Parliament soon, because its parliamentary approval is committed to Brussels before the end of this semester within the framework of the commitments agreed to receive the Next Generation EU Funds.