Pension spending up 4 bn in 2015

(ANSA) - Rome, April 15 - Public spending on pensions rose 4.126 billion euros (1.6%) to 261.470 billion euros in 2015, Istat said Friday. Arrears accounted for 2.2 billion, mostly paid out in reimbursements to households after the Constitutional Court rejected a freeze on automatic index-linked rises. The government is trying to keep pension spending under control while cleaving to the main lines of past reforms which have made the system sustainable. It is considering lower pensions for early retirees and still has to compensate many people left without pensions or wages by a controversial 2011 reform contained in the Monti government's 'Save-Italy' decree.