The incentive for families who decide to open a pension fund for their children from birth could end up in the next budget law. An idea that has been circulating for weeks among the offices of the Ministry of Economy, inspired by experiments already active in Trentino, where social security savings and birth rates meet in a not entirely naive intergenerational pact. The elephant in the room is that the longer this goes on the more money there will be to pay everyone’s pensions. For this reason, you might as well start taking advantage first. Much earlier than expected and before entering the world of work.
So the State, which is struggling between declining demographics and an increasingly problematic pension system, is trying to enter that segment that it has ignored for years: long-term employment and a pension paid not only with actual years of work. A pension that starts from the cradle, fueled by family payments and, perhaps, by a public share. Not exactly poetry, but not the usual tax deduction either.
The incentive for families with newborns
A contribution for newborns could be included in the social security chapter of the next Budget, designed to start a supplementary pension right from the cradle. The Government is evaluating the measure, which aims to combine economic support for families with the promotion of private pensions.
Proposed and desired by Fratelli d’Italia, the initiative would be part of the birth rate package, the workhorse of Giorgia Meloni’s party. The idea is to lighten the burden on parents in the early years and, at the same time, push a habit, that of supplementary pension provision, which is still struggling to take hold in Italy.
The Trentino Alto Adige model
Clearly, Fratelli d’Italia’s proposal is inspired by an experiment already started in Trentino Alto Adige, where a baby bonus linked to pension funds has been active for a few months. The regional contribution provides for the disbursement of 300 euros upon birth, adoption or foster care, provided that the minor is enrolled in a pension fund.
For the following four years, 200 euros per year are provided for those who continue to pay at least 100 euros into the fund. An interesting incentive that could now be replicated on a national scale.
Who will be able to access and the hypothesized criteria
If the Trentino model were implemented at state level, the contribution would be made out directly to the child, with the opening of an individual position in the fund chosen by the parents or guardians. On a transitional basis, the measure could also concern minors already born, up to 5 years of age or within 5 years of adoption or foster care.
The mechanism could also provide in this case that public support is provided only in the presence of a minimum contribution from the family, so as to promote an active and conscious approach to supplementary pension provision.
Why focus on retirement from childhood
The Fratelli d’Italia proposal starts from a fact that is difficult to ignore: with the current contributory system, tomorrow’s pensions, if we are lucky enough to see them, will be meager than yesterday’s.
Strengthening complementary pension provision is thus not a whim, but the only possible network for those born today in a country that is aging and increasingly empty because it does not guarantee a future for young people or even a salary commensurate with prices. The Covip numbers show a timid growth in participation in pension funds, but we are still light years away from European standards.
