Rimini, August 5, 2026 – Working for 41 years, first in catering, then as an electrician (in both cases first as an employee, then as an entrepreneur) and ending up with a pension of 917.37 euros net per month. Moreover, having a civil disability of 75%. This, in brief, is the story of Mauro Beleffi, 64 years old, resident in Santarcangelo di Romagna. Beleffi sent an email to Carlino (and to institutional bodies such as the President of the Republic, Government, and Parliament) titled ‘I am not afraid of death. I am afraid of making it alive to the end of the month’.
Read more “Dream of becoming a model destroyed.” Slips on scooter at 15, hit and dragged by a car:
Beleffi, why did you decide to make your story public?
“To see if there will be any reaction.”
Among the things you write, ‘I cannot think of facing the coming decades living on a pension that today does not allow me a peaceful and dignified life.’ Why?
“I have a pension of 917 euros. When I complained to the unions, I was told it is based on the contributions paid, and that I paid few. I paid the contributions they asked for, from the first to the last. Imagine that to get another 100 euros per month in pension, they asked me for an additional 15,000 euros in turnover when I had my electrician company in Santarcangelo.”
When did you retire?
“January 2024. During COVID I had a serious health problem, I was operated on and I still had two years of contributions to pay to reach 41 years of contributions. So I had to recover, I could no longer work due to the lockdown, but I still managed, thanks to a loan, to reach 41 years. And now I find myself with 917 euros. I add that I managed because I started working as a regular employee in catering when I was 15, and that I am 75% disabled. Otherwise, I would have had to pay contributions, I recall, until 45 or 47 years. And to think that there are people retired for about thirty years who receive 1,500 euros.”
Do you have to pay rent for your home?
“No, that is mine. I have to pay bills, groceries, medicine, unexpected expenses – I have an old van, if I had to change it, what would I ask for, a 50 euro per month loan? I can’t afford it – my wife is dependent. The children are grown.”
How do you live this condition?
“I can’t take it anymore, I feel bad, also psychologically. The other day I was at the dock, it was full of yachts and luxury boats. Do you know what I thought? That my work ended up somewhere else. That there are those who can afford to spend 900 euros a day to keep the boat at the port, and that is the equivalent of my pension, so the money is there. They have starved me. All this is serious, it is serious. We don’t need much to live.”
Let’s quote another passage from your letter: ‘I do not ask for welfare, I ask for respect for honest work,’ because a pension is not a prize, it is not a gift’.
“I make a proposal. Change the term ‘pension.’ A thousand euros a month pension is not dignified. Call it alms. I don’t understand why I am reduced like this, if they had told me before that I would end up in this situation, I would have become a criminal. What am I supposed to tell my children? To work a lifetime to get this pension?”
