Pensions, what changes with the 2026 budget: young people and women are the most penalized for leaving work early

The budget law for 2026definitively approved by Parliament, contains a new crackdown on early retirement which it affects both men and, to a greater extent, women and young people. For female workers and for those who are entirely in the contributory system (that is, they began to pay contributions after 1995), in addition to the adjustment of the requirements to life expectancy (three months more to retire), two early exit channels are in fact cancelled.

Female workers will no longer be able to use the Women’s Optionwhich the government has decided not to extend and therefore expires today. Young people, however, will no longer be able to combine contributions to INPS with those paid to supplementary pension funds to reach the minimum pension amount which, in the contributory system, allows them to leave work three years early, at 64 years of age.

On the other hand, the government wanted to facilitate, especially for young people, the transfer of severance pay (the provisions for liquidation) to the same supplementary pension with the silent consent system. Which however will have a fairly short duration: 60 days. In practice, young people hired for the first time, if they have not arranged otherwise within two months of hiring, will see their severance pay automatically end up in the category fund.

Men: three months more to leave, but spread over two years

The rules that have the greatest impact on men’s pensions are those that concern the adaptation of the requirements for leaving work to life expectancy. According to current laws, the next adjustment is scheduled for 2027 and based on INPS findings it would have led to a flat increase of three months in the retirement age.

The League fought hard to block this increase but in the end it only had to swallow a dilution of three extra months in two years. So from 2027 the increase will be one month, while another two will be added from 2028. As a result, it will take 67 years and one month of age to retire in 2027, and from 2028 it will take 67 years and three months. Instead, to retire early you will go from the current 42 years and 10 months of contributions (regardless of age) to 42 years and 11 months in 2027 and to 43 years and one month in 2028. This requirement must always be added to three months due to the so-called “moving window”, i.e. the waiting period between the accrual of the contributions necessary to retire and the starting date of the allowance. A delay that in fact already brings today the length of service for early retirement is 43 years and one month, a threshold which will rise to 43 years and 4 months in 2028.

And it could have been worse, given that the government had presented a first maxi-amendment to the budget with which, among other things, it increased the window on early pensions by up to six months. But then the revolt of the League, which threatened not to vote on these rules, forced the Minister of Economy, Giancarlo Giorgetti (also from the League), in agreement with Palazzo Chigi, to backtrack. Now the League has managed to get an agenda approved which commits the government to “evaluate” the suspension of the three-month adjustment in 2026, but this is a non-binding act, not to mention that more than 3 billion would be needed.

Women workers, after twenty years there is no longer a women’s option

For female workers, the adjustment of requirements to life expectancy does not lead to differences compared to men with regards to the old-age pension, where the requirements have been aligned for some time now. And so women will also have to wait until they turn 67 years and one month in 2027 and 67 years and three months in 2028 to leave their jobs, provided they have at least 20 years of contributions. However, there remains a relative advantage for female workers who can access early retirement. In fact, for them the requirement is already one year lower and will remain so. A difference granted in consideration of the care work still heavily borne by women, who in fact meet the requirements for early retirement much more difficultly than men.

From 2027, female workers will be able to leave, regardless of age, after 41 years and 11 months of contributions and from 2028 after 42 years and one month. However, they too will have to wait, like workers, for the three-month “moving window” to obtain the first monthly pension payment.

Furthermore, from 2026, women, as well as men, will no longer be able to access Quota 103i.e. the early retirement channel reserved for those who are at least 62 years of age and have 41 years of contributions. In fact, the government has not extended this measure. But they they will no longer even have the women’s option availablea specific channel reserved for them to leave work early, which had been granted as far back as 2004 (Maroni law) and had survived until now, albeit with various changes which had progressively tightened the requirements and narrowed the audience (just over a thousand applications in the first half of 2025 against the almost 24 thousand women who left in 2022). This measure was also not extended. Only those who have met the requirements by 31 December 2025 will therefore be able to continue to apply (for Quota 103 and Women’s Option).

Young people: more difficult to leave at 64. Off to silent consent for severance pay in funds

Young people would need support interventions to avoid inadequate pensions in the future. A well-founded fear, given that the “contributory” system, which applies to all those who started working after 1995, is less generous than the previous “salary” method, penalizes discontinuous careers and does not provide for minimum integration.

That is, you will take what you have earned with your contributions throughout your working life. And if these are not sufficient to reach a minimum amount equal to at least the social allowance (currently 538.69 euros per month) you cannot retire at 67, but you have to wait until 71.

If we add that the rate of enrollment in supplementary social security funds among young people is very low, the concern can only increase.
Precisely for this reason, last year the government, with the maneuver for 2025, had introduced something new: the possibility of accumulating INPS contributions with those paid to pension funds for the purpose of achieving the requirements for early retirement in the contributory system, which allows those who have accrued an allowance equal to three times the social allowance (today it would be 1,616 euros) to leave work at 64, a threshold which will rise to 3.2 times from 2030.

The accumulation could also be used to reach the minimum amount to exit at 67 years of age. The measure aimed, among other things, to encourage enrollment in supplementary social security. But with the 2026 budget law the same government, in order to find resources with which to cover the lack of other measures that had to be postponed due to the opposition of the League (the lengthening of the “window” and the restriction on the redemption of the degree), canceled the possibility of cumulation.

To support supplementary pension provision, the executive has instead introduced silent consent (60 days from the moment of hiring) for those hired for the first time from 1st July next, which will favor the transfer of severance pay to pension funds.

December 30, 2025 (changed December 30, 2025 | 7:44 pm)

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