Society

Balearic pensions' de-registrations low compared with other regions

While there was a 27% increase in April de-registrations in the Balearics, nationally there was a 91% rise. | Marcelo Sastre

Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterPalma30/08/2020 09:17

The Balearics has been one of the regions of Spain where the number of pensions for retired senior citizens paid by social security has fallen the least as a consequence of the pandemic.

In March, 511 pension payments were removed from the social security register. These compared with 431 in March 2019. In April, the figure was 501, whereas it had been 394 last year. For May, there was a lower figure than in 2019 - 405 as opposed to 425.

Carmen Orte, a professor at the University of the Balearic Islands, says that the data for the country as a whole are clear. There has been a very great change in the de-registration of pension payments. "Around 20,000 senior citizens have died of Covid-19."

Nationally, the figures show a different pattern to those in the Balearics. In March, there were 26,596 pension de-registrations, whereas in March last year there were 23,669. The percentage increase was 12.3%, while in the Balearics it was 18.5%. In April, however, there was a notable change: 42,752 de-registrations compared with 22,341 in April 2019. The increase was 91.3%. In the Balearics it was 27.1%. In the Madrid region alone, the increase was 313%; in Catalonia, 143%.

Orte adds that the figures have now started to balance out again. There is more protection and better care for the elderly than there was in the early stages of the pandemic. Nevertheless, those aged 80 or more remain particularly vulnerable because they have weaker immune systems.