The president of Mutualidad, Enrique Sanz Fernández-Lomana, argues that the transfer of capital from mutualities to the public system should be orderly and occur when benefits are generated, such as retirements or disabilities.
The reform that will allow self-employed individuals contributing to alternative mutualities to transfer their funds to the Special Regime for Self-Employed Workers (RETA) is progressing in Congress, but there are still details to be finalised. The president of Mutualidad, Enrique Sanz Fernández-Lomana, has demanded that the transfer of capital be carried out in an orderly manner and, above all, at the time of retirement, not before.
Deferred transfer, key to avoiding losses
The law, which has undergone substantial changes following amendments from the PP and Junts, establishes that the regulatory development will be completed within a maximum of three months after its final approval. One of the issues still to be defined is how and when transfers from mutualities to Social Security will occur.
Fernández-Lomana is emphatic: "The release of funds must align with the actual generation of those benefits, such as retirements, disabilities, or deaths." The president of Mutualidad, representing nearly 50,000 of the 100,000 alternative self-employed individuals —mostly lawyers—, warns that hastily liquidating assets to transfer them all at once would cause financial harm to mutualities and affect the public debt market.
"Hastily liquidating assets to transfer them all at once would cause financial harm to mutualities and affect the public debt market. For now, this provision has not been incorporated into the law and has been delegated to the regulation, although we hope that some mention can be introduced in the Senate," he states.
Retired mutualists: the minimum supplement as an alternative
For mutualists who are already retired and will be excluded from the transition to RETA, the law provides for the right to a minimum supplement on equal terms with RETA self-employed individuals. Fernández-Lomana explains that "for those receiving pensions that do not reach the public minimum, the law provides for the right to a minimum supplement on equal terms with RETA self-employed individuals, which could be applied directly without the need to resort to the transition."
These supplements are funded by the General State Budgets, that is, through common tax revenue, so they do not have direct contributory backing.
A more political than technical solution
One of the elements surrounding the reform is whether technical rigor has been maintained or if political issues have prevailed. Fernández-Lomana acknowledges that "it is true that a more political than technical solution has been adopted, which does not always meet the rigor that a reform of this type would require." The president of Mutualidad criticises that no specific figures or budgets have been provided by Social Security, leaving assessments of the real cost of the measure in the realm of speculation.
"Without shared objective data, the criteria that have prevailed in the legislative debate are predominantly political in nature," he adds.
The maintenance of alternative options, the great triumph
Perhaps the greatest achievement for mutualities in the final text is the maintenance of the alternative system to Social Security. The Government intended for new self-employed individuals to have a legal obligation to register in RETA, but an amendment from Junts has repealed this removal.
"We will continue to offer alternatives because we believe it is an excellent system for professionals with savings capacity who wish to manage their provisions with individual capitalisation criteria," asserts Fernández-Lomana.
For self-employed individuals in an alternative mutuality, the reform represents a significant change: they will now have the option to transfer their funds to RETA, but the timing and conditions of that transfer will depend on the regulation approved in the coming months. Meanwhile, retired mutualists will have to wait for the minimum supplement to be finalised.
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