Pensions will rise by 3.8% in 2024 with the CPI: retirees will earn on average 52 euros more per month
Contributory pensions will rise by 3.8% next year, in line with the average inflation that has been registered in the last twelve months. The INE published this Wednesday the Consumer Price Index (CPI) data for November, the last figure that was missing to fully specify the dimension of the revaluation.
An increase of 3.8% will imply an increase in the system's average pension of about 45.5 euros per month. Currently, the average benefit amounts to 1,198 euros per month in 14 payments. In the case of retirements, the average benefit will be revalued by 52 euros per month and will thus go from the current 1,378 euros per month to 1,430 euros next year.. However, as more people will continue to enter the system with higher pensions in 2024, the averages are expected to rise somewhat more.
Another of the unknowns that is cleared up with the November CPI is the amount of the maximum pension, also linked to inflation. This benefit will rise from the current 3,059 euros per month in 14 payments to 3,175 next year (116 euros more). Along the same lines, the maximum contribution bases will increase from the current 4,495.5 euros to 4,720 in 2024. The part of a worker's salary that exceeds that amount is exempt from contributions.
In addition, non-contributory pensions—those that do not require having contributed to Social Security in order to receive them—will increase by 6.8%, in line with the provisions of the reform approved by the Executive in March of this year.. This percentage increase will also be applied to the minimum contributory pension and the minimum vital income.
In this way, the non-contributory individual retirement pension will be 517 euros per month in 14 payments (33 euros more than in 2023); The minimum vital income for an adult without burdens will rise to 604 euros per month in 12 payments (38 euros more) and the minimum contributory retirement pension with a dependent spouse will grow to 1,032 euros per month in 14 payments (66 euros more per month ).
Now that the size of the pension increase is known, the Government must make it official through a royal decree that is expected to be published in December, when the inflation data for November is final.. In addition, the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration usually sends a letter to pensioners in January in which it informs them of how their benefit is after the revaluation.
The increase in all benefits, the maximum pension and the contribution bases must be reflected in the General State Budgets, where the Government will also detail the cost of the revaluation. If the scales used by the Bank of Spain are applied, which estimates that for each point of inflation spending increases by 1,800 million euros, the cost of the revaluation will be around 6,840 million.
The purchasing power of pensioners is protected by law since December 2021, in such a way that benefits are always revalued with inflation. However, this was not always like that. In 2011 the Government froze all pensions except the minimum and non-contributory ones to cut expenses in the midst of the financial crisis. In 2013, a mechanism was introduced that limited revaluations to 0.25% while Social Security was in deficit.