By Chris King • Updated: 05 Apr 2023 • 0:22 • 4 minutes read
Image of pensioners at the beach. Credit: altafulla/Shutterstock.com
The 2023-2024 season of the Imserso tourism programme for pensioners will go on sale in a few months’ time. It will have an increase of 70,000 places compared to the current campaign, this time totalling 900,000. This increase will allow more pensioners to travel at a reduced price, which this year will be 7.5 per cent more expensive.
Every year there have been applicants who were left without a place to choose their destination. This was not only because the demand outstripped supply, but also because there were preferential accreditation holders who had priority in choosing destinations. But, who falls into this preferential accredited category?
This differentiation is assessed on the basis of the Imserso points system. It assigns a grade to applicants according to their age, disability status, economic situation, participation in the programme in previous years, and membership of a large family.
Those with the highest scores are given priority when it comes to choosing a place; these are the preferential accredited applicants. The rest, the non-preferred accreditation holders, have to make do with selecting their holiday destination from the remaining places, which are not always the most attractive destinations.
Although there are still several months to go before the call for applications for the next Imserso season opens, here we will try to explain how the points system works, which gives priority to some pensioners over others.
Age is one of the main requirements to enjoy these trips, and the evaluation of this variable is carried out in the following way: for those under 60 years of age, 1 point; with 60 years of age, 2 points, and one more point for each year until reaching 20 points at 78 years of age.
Persons over 78 years of age will also be assigned a maximum of 20 points. When there are two participants in the application, for the purpose of determining age, the arithmetic mean of the years completed by each of them will be calculated.
If the applicant has a degree of disability equal to or greater than 33 per cent, 10 points will be awarded.
The Imserso also takes into account the income of the applicants when granting the places. When an applicant is a solo person, the income of persons in the same situation will be considered. If there are two users in the same application, the sum of the income of both will be obtained in order to apply the scale and the result will be divided by 1.33. The scale to be applied will be as specified in the following table:
Pensioners receiving the amount of the non-contributory retirement or disability pension (PNC) (€402.80) will receive 50 points.
• Pensioners receiving the minimum pension of €900 will receive 45 points.
• Pensions between €900.01 and €1,050 will receive 40 points.
• From €1,050.01 to €1,200.00, they will get 35 points.
• Pensioners between €1,200.01 and €1,350 will receive 30 points.
• Pensioners between €1,350.01 and €1,500 will receive 25 points.
• If they receive between €1,500.01 and €1,650, they will receive 20 points.
• Pensions from €1,650.01 to €1,800 will receive 15 points.
• Pensions from €1,800.01 to €1,950 get 10 points.
• Pensions from €1.950,01 to €2.100,00 will be evaluated with 5 points.
• If the pensioner receives more than €2,100, he/she will not receive any points in this assessment section.
By means of this variable, Imserso explained that it favours access to the programme of people who have not received a place in previous years. To distribute the points, the last two seasons of the programmes will be taken into consideration, the 2022/2023 season and the 2021/2022 season.
The maximum score estimated for this variable is 225 points, distributed as follows:
• Persons using the programme with accreditation in the waiting list phase in the 2022/2023 season will have a score of 175 points.
• Users who have not travelled in the last two seasons will be awarded 50 points.
• Users who have not travelled in the 2022/2023 season but have travelled in the 2021/2022 season: 40 points.
• Users who have travelled in the 2022/2023 season but not in the 2021/2022 season: 20 points.
• Users who have travelled in the last two seasons: the maximum score for this section will be up to 10 points, according to the following breakdown:
• If 2 or more trips have been made in either of the two seasons 2022/2023 and 2021/2022: 0 points.
• Other cases: 10 points.
For the assessment of applications from married couples or unmarried couples, the situation of the spouse who obtains the lowest score will be taken into consideration.
By virtue of the provisions of the Law for the Protection of Large Families, access to the Imserso tourism programme is favoured for those persons who hold this condition. The maximum score determined for this variable is 10 additional points for special large families or five additional points for general large families.
The Imserso explained that if, once all the variables included in the scale have been assessed, there are files with the same score, they will be ordered according to the applicant’s date of birth, as reported by larazon.es.
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Originally from Wales, Chris spent years on the Costa del Sol before moving to the Algarve where he is a web reporter for The Euro Weekly News covering international and Spanish national news. Got a news story you want to share? Then get in touch at editorial@euroweeklynews.com
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