After the “stamping”, the 2027 budget is preparing for examination by Parliament. In the draft budget law, the last one passed by the Meloni government during this legislature, there is a 100% revaluation of pensions only up to four times the minimum, while medium-high social security checks are cut, reviewing the mechanism for adjusting pensions to inflation. From 1 January 2027 only the lowest pay slips would increase (slightly).
Revaluation is the mechanism that allows checks to be adjusted to price increases, with the aim of protecting the purchasing power of pensioners. For 2027, the calculation is based on the inflation recorded in 2026 compared to 2025. The automatic mechanism of the revaluation of pension checks is very expensive for the social security system, and provides for an annual increase in the amounts to recover the inflation. Given the narrow mesh in which we can operate, one of the hypotheses being maneuvered to raise cash is precisely that of reviewing this mechanism: we move from the system by brackets to that by bands.
Who loses money
Next year the social security system will return to the indexation mechanism similar to the one applied in 2023. This method, however, risks penalizing some pensioners who would find themselves with lower figures in 2027. With the new mechanism, those with a gross monthly pension of 2,500-3,000 euros would lose around 100 euros per year. For the highest allowances (from six thousand euros gross and up) it reaches up to a thousand euros per year. The loss grows as pensions rise. Those with a monthly pension of up to two thousand euros gross would lose nothing: with the adjustment to 100% of inflation there would be monthly increases of around 45-60 euros.
How revaluation works
Today the law provides for three different percentages, depending on the amount of the social security check:
- 100% for checks up to 4 times the minimum treatment;
- 90% for those between 4 and 5 times the minimum;
- 75% for higher amounts.
The six bands
The budget law for 2027, therefore, provides for 100% revaluation only for checks equal to or less than four times the INPS minimum payment (611.85 euros), equal to 2,447.4 euros. After which the revaluation is progressively cut:
- for treatments “equal to or less than five times” the minimum (3,059.25 euros), the revaluation is 85%;
- the revaluation is 53% for checks “greater than five times” the minimum and “less than six” (up to 3,671.1 euros);
- by 47% between six times the minimum and eight times the minimum (4,894.8 euros);
- by 37% for those between eight times the minimum and 10 times the minimum (6,118.5 euros);
- 32% above 10 times the minimum.
The medium-high allowances are therefore only partially revalued, with a decreasing percentage reaching up to 32% for the highest ones, more than ten times the minimum. If inflation recognized for revaluation purposes was 2%, a pension benefiting from the full adjustment would increase by 2%. For a check subject to the minimum percentage of 32%, however, the increase would be 0.64%.
The measure therefore does not involve a nominal cut in allowances, but a reduction in the increases recognized compared to those that would have been due with a full revaluation. It is important to specify that the full revaluation is due to checks up to four times the INPS minimum payment, therefore up to 2,447.40 euros, and applies to the entire check, not just the part exceeding the threshold.
Savings for the State
The crackdown on the revaluation of pensions envisaged by the budget will allow the State to save 14.2 billion euros in ten years, until 2036. This is what emerges from the technical report attached to the budget law, which quantifies the overall savings net of tax effects at 8.5 billion. The State will support a lower pension expense only in the first three years of 1.476 billion euros per year, before tax effects, of 885 million net, also considering the lower tax revenues.
This difference depends on the fact that increases in pensions contribute to the formation of taxable income: if the increases recognized are smaller, the taxes that the State collects on those incomes also decrease. The technical report of the maneuver calculates the annual savings until 2036, which will gradually begin to reduce from 2030 and concern public finances. For interested pensioners, however, the concrete effect on purchasing power will also depend on the price trend and the revaluation percentages applied in individual years.