The Secretary of State for Social Security, Octavio Granado, has invited experts, academics and technicians from the administration to discuss the nature of benefits and their financing. He has also highlighted the role of the Toledo Pact Commission as the ideal interlocution framework to ensure a reasonable debate in the field of pensions.
"The basis of the sustainability of the pension system is to pay better wages." This has been the main idea of the inaugural conference of the Secretary of State for Social Security, Octavio Granado, who has started the cycle of conferences "Social Security before digitalization and the retirement of the baby boom: keys to its financial sustainability and social ", within the framework of the summer courses that the Menéndez Pelayo International University celebrates in Santander.
"From the Social Security Administration we have done what we had to: increase the maximum and minimum contribution bases to guarantee the income of the System," he said. The Secretary of State assessed debate forums such as this course in which the contributions of prominent personalities of civil society and those responsible for politics are heard.
Granado recalled that the moments of greatest difficulty of Social Security have coincided with restrictive policies on wages: "No scenario of sustainability is possible without foreseeing a parallel evolution of income and expenditure", and highlighted the importance of the agreements agreed upon so much with the social agents as with the parliamentary forces.
In this regard, the Secretary of State trusts that once there is a stable Government, dialogue will be resumed and agreements will be possible both in the social dialogue roundtables and among the representatives of the Toledo Pact.
Redefine the nature of benefits
The system must face mainly the demographic challenge, said Granado, who pointed out that the Administration should provide parents with the coverage they need for the care of their children. However, the debate is on the nature of the financing of family benefits, death and survival, as well as the so-called "improper expenses" of Social Security. "We have to define the benefits we want to give and find the financing that allows them to pay," he said.
In his opinion it is essential to find formulas for increasing financial resources. "We began to glimpse a work model that we do not know and that will have very different characteristics", which is why it proposes to analyze the current model and look for flexible contribution formulas. An example of this flexibility is found in the legislation passed with regard to the compatibility of the pension with the author's rights and artistic creation. Thus, he has referred to the "solidarity quote" that this group must pay and that does not generate benefits, but the possibility of continuing with the artistic activity and at the same time contributing to the sustainability of the system.
The Secretary of State has concluded by appealing to dialogue and consensus to devise a model that allows an increase in the income of the system, in line with new forms of work and the serene study of the nature of benefits.