The oldest Canarians increase the financial support for their children by 20% in an inflationary environment

Within that 70%, 55% of the senior population allocates their help to their children, although they also do so with other members of their family or with people in their immediate environment. In it rest of the national territorythe economic support provided by seniors decreases up to 52%.

According to Juan Fernández Palacios, director of the Ageingnomics Research Center of Fundación MAPFRE, this is due to the loss of purchasing power that Canarian society is experiencing due to the inflationary pressure that has been occurring particularly in the last two years. For Fernández, “the fact that more and more support is required from seniors with respect to their closest circle indicates that the economic position of the canarians has weakened».

Regarding the frequency of help, 35% of these seniors say that they need to support their close circle every month, a situation that in the rest of the country only occurs in 19% of cases.

Less than 40% save

The difference between the support provided by those over 55 years of age in the Canary Islands compared to the national territory becomes even more relevant if we take into account that seniors canaries save less, compared to almost 49% of the state as a whole. According to the foundation’s study, only 38% of Canarian seniors can save and of that total, 52.3% can save 10% or less of their income and only 8% manage to reserve more than 30% of their income. income you receive.

The perception of Canarian seniors is that this situation is not going to improve in the coming years. Almost half (47.8%) consider that help to loved ones will have to be even greater in the future.

Economic pialr

In Fernández’s opinion, one of the main conclusions that can be drawn from this report is that the stereotype that presents seniors as a population group in need of helpwhich must be taken care of and which must be attended to does not correspond to realitysince the data reflects the opposite, positioning them as a fundamental economic pillar for the family and for society.

Regarding how seniors experience the rise in prices, the results of the barometer are clear. In the Canary Islands, 92% say that they are quite or very concerned. A concern that according to the foundation is mainly based on the fact that Inflation is intensely affecting the main item of expenditure that the senior generation has, consumption of food and non-alcoholic beverages where increases have reached up to 30%.

Regarding the future of the economy, 8 out of 10 members of the senior generation believe the economic situation will worsen and that they will have to help their loved ones more (83.8%) despite the fact that less than half feel secure with their personal welfare.

This senior consumer report analyzes the habits of the 734,113 inhabitants who are over 55 years old, a group that represents 33% of the total population of the autonomous community.

Fernández stated categorically that the concept that active or late retirement is responsible for the high rates of youth unemployment is not true and assured that it is a prejudice that is “very easily dismantled” and that appears punctually. «It can happen at the level of a company but at the global level of the economy it is false».

He expressed that the effect of this type of retirement is rather the opposite when considering that when a senior remains active, what generates employment opportunities for other seniors and for young people by generating wealth, continuing to pay taxes that contribute to security social and increasing GDP. «It is a fallacy andor worse is that there are first level public authorities who say that this happensthat the elderly have to retire to make way for the young, is a lie.

Among Canarian seniors, only 16% would be willing to extend their working life, motivated according to Fernández by the lack of flexibility of the legal framework to go from worker to retiree. “They are not sufficiently incentivized or rather disincentivized.”

He also pointed out that despite the fact that we read and see the opposite, confidence in the public pension system “is high. They see that it arrives on time, that double payments are respected and that it is revalued in reference to the CPI. “They consider that the public pension is sufficient.”

As an example, he cited that in countries like Japan, Iceland, or South Korea, the population extends their retirement until age 70 and “have the lowest youth employment rates in the entire world economy.”

He also indicated that one way to strengthen the social security system is to maintain or increase the number of contributors. “There is no need to object to those who want to continue contributing.”