Spending on pensions reached €12,051 million in September, 10.9% more, setting a new record. This is because, in application of the pension reform, pensions have risen by 8.5% by 2023 as a result of average inflation for the period December 2021-November 2022. Following the rise in pensions in line with the CPI applied since the beginning of the year, the average retirement pension increased in September by 9.5% year-on-year to €1,376.4 per month.
In September this year, 10,073,434 contributory pensions were paid out, 1.2% more than a year ago, to just over 9.12 million pensioners. Of the total number of pensions, more than 6.38 million were retirement pensions; 2.35 million were widow’s pensions; 945,539 were permanent disability pensions; 342,294 were orphan’s pensions; and 45,328 were family pensions. Of the total number of pensioners (9,121,410 on 1 September 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 the retirement pension for 6.3 million people, 60.2% of whom are men; widowhood is the main benefit for 1.5 million people (95.9% are women); permanent disability is the main pension for 940,705 pensioners; orphan’s pension for 324,627 people; and family allowance for 44,681 pensioners.
The average amount of new retirement pensions was €1,439.8 per month in August this year (the latest data available).
The Department headed by José Luis Escrivá estimates that pension expenditure stood at 11.7% of GDP over the last twelve months, the same figure as in 2022 (11.7% of GDP), but lower than in 2020 (12.4% of GDP), a year conditioned by the impact of the pandemic on GDP, and also lower than in 2021 (12.1% of GDP).
Of the €12,051.4 million spent in September on the ordinary payroll of contributory pensions, almost three quarters (73%) went to the payment of retirement pensions, which totalled €8,793 million, 11.7% more than in September last year.
Almost €2,006 million were allocated to widowhood pensions, 9.4% more than a year ago, while €1,057 million (+7.5%) were allocated to permanent disability benefits.
The payment of orphan’s benefits amounted to €163.9 million (+8.9%), and benefits in favour of family members totalled €31.9 million (+12%).
