The State's contributions to the Social Security budget will amount to 38,904 million euros in 2023, which represents an increase of 7.2% compared to what was budgeted in 2022, according to the draft General State Budget (PGE) presented today in The deputies congress.
The budget includes that within the contributions of the State, the transfers from the State to Social Security in compliance with the Toledo Pact of 2020 stand out for an amount of 19,888 million, 1,492 million more than in the Budget of the current year. The Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, recalled that this contribution aims to "guarantee the sustainability of the system in the medium and long term".
State contributions constitute the concept with the greatest weight in the financing of Social Security after social contributions. With these transfers, benefits for birth and care of minors, reductions in contributions, the integration of gaps or the complement of pensions due to gender gap are financed. Likewise, the State plans to contribute resources to Social Security next year to cover the supplements for minimum pensions (7,261 million), for dependency care (3,522 million), for the minimum vital income (IMV) (3,097 million) and for non-contributory pensions (3,003 million).
The Social Security budgets also include 10,004 million euros of financial liabilities, reflecting the allocation of loans by the State to balance its accounts budget, 43.3% more. Regarding non-financial expenses, Social Security foresees 199,301 million (10.8% more), within which contributory pensions constitute the main item, with 166,777 million (11.2% more).
This increase is explained by the increase in the number of pensioners, by the variation in the average pension and by its revaluation, which will be calculated once November's inflation is known, which the Executive estimates to be 8.5%. In this sense, Montero recalled that by law pensions must be updated "as the CPI evolves" so that pensioners do not lose purchasing power. Despite this, the Executive plans to allocate nearly 3,000 million to the Pension Reserve Fund.
In order to balance the Social Security accounts, the Government plans to increase contribution income by 11.5% in 2023, to 152,075 million euros, which will allow financing 74.5% of the total Social Security budget . It is estimated that this increase comes from the increase in the maximum contribution bases -still to be specified- and from the improvement in economic growth.
The accounts incorporate as a novelty the new contribution system for the self-employed based on their net income, as well as the additional finalist contribution to nourish the reserve fund established by the intergenerational equity mechanism (MEI) from 2023 to 2033.
