Lifetime pensions: the long battle of former MPs who lost half their pensions

The pensions for former members of Parliament will not be restored. Former members who appealed to the Chamber of Deputies for the restoration of their benefits will have to accept this. The Chamber's Appeals Board has upheld the terms of the 2018 Fico resolution, which introduced the reduction in pensions for former members of Parliament. It rejected the appeal filed by approximately 900 former members of Parliament.

Among the former MPs who filed an appeal are former MP Ilona Staller and porn star Cicciolina, elected on the Radical Party ticket in 1987 and serving until 1992. But the appeal also concerns many others, including Paolo Guzzanti , former mayors of Naples Antonio Bassolino and Rosa Russo Iervolino, former mayor of Imperia Claudio Scajola, then Fabrizio Cicchitto, Claudio Martelli, and Margherita Boniver. They also include Italo Bocchino, Mario Landolfi, Gianni Alemanno, Mario Capanna, former magistrate Tiziana Maiolo, former Olympic athlete Manuela Di Centa, former vice president of the CSM Michele Vietti, Giovanna Melandri , and Angelino Alfano.

What are annuities?

Life annuities are a lifelong annuity granted to those who have served as members of parliament or regional councilors. In 1954, the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate established, under a system of autodichia (parliamentary autonomy), pension funds funded by internal budgets and only partially funded by contributions from parliamentarians. These funds, which were profitable, were abolished in 1968, and a full-fledged life annuity was created, funded by the budgets of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, granted to those who had completed five years of office.

What do the 2012 changes include?

In 2012, the Chamber of Deputies and Senate abolished pensions and decided that, starting from the beginning of the 17th legislature, pensions would be calculated on a contributory basis, that is, on the contributions actually paid by parliamentarians. Pension entitlement now accrues after 4 years and 6 months of service, and pension entitlement begins upon reaching age 65. However, former parliamentarians still receive the old pension.

2018: M5S obtains a cut in previous pensions

In 2018, the Five Star Movement entered government, and Fraccaro became Minister for Relations with Parliament. But his main focus was the fight against pensions. He waged a battle over method: there's no need for a law; the Bureau of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate should cut pensions with a simple resolution. He lobbied President Roberto Fico . Eventually, he prevailed, and in July 2018, the Bureau of the Chamber of Deputies passed a resolution recalculating pensions using the contributory method. And it cut them. In October , Maria Elisabetta Casellati and the Senate followed suit. The resolution established the retroactive recalculation of pensions using a contributory method, which led to the recalculation of the sums received by former parliamentarians with cuts that in some cases exceeded 80%.

The revolt of the former parliamentarians

Over 1,300 former parliamentarians had initially appealed the decision, but some of the positions, especially those relating to the older appellants, have already been resolved with previous rulings, in particular the 2022 ruling which declared the illegitimacy of the quotient used to recalculate pensions in the Fico resolution, which had been developed with the advice of the then president of INPS, Tito Boeri .

The 2022 ruling wasn't the only one to lead to a review of pension cuts. Today, the average reductions appealed are between 30 and 50 percent.