March 2018

Aadhaar: Is India’s biometric ID scheme hurting the poor?

For six to seven days every month, says Muniya Devi, her five-member family doesn't get food to eat. The frail 31-year-old lives with her children in an arid village in Jharkhand, one of India's poorest states. Her husband, Bushan, works in a brick kiln some 65km (40 miles) away, earning 130 rupees ($1.90; £1.40) a day. For the last three years, they have been deprived of subsidised food from India's vast public distribution system, a lifeline for the poor. That is...

Australia. Labor to exclude all pensioners from $59 billion dividends policy

Labor has buckled to pressure in the political row over its $59 billion revenue grab on dividend payments, staging a sudden retreat to exempt all Australians on the age pension from a policy it unveiled just two weeks ago. Bill Shorten will vow to exclude 306,000 pensioners from his original plan in a bid to calm the storm over the impact on retirees who stand to lose tax refunds worth thousands of dollars a year. The dramatic backdown comes after sharp...

Pension pains: The 5 hurdles facing LatAm AFPs

Not all Latin America's pension woes can be blamed on the AFP system, but there are key issues that are at the heart of the attacks from the public and politicians. US think tank Brookings Institute examined the big challenges facing pensions in the region on the 25th anniversary of the sweeping reforms that led to the birth of AFPs, a system first created in Chile in the 1980s. The report highlighted the unsustainability of defined benefit public pensions, as shown...

Perú. AFP podrán invertir el 48% de los fondos en el exterior

El Banco Central de Reserva (BCR) aprobó elevar el límite operativo de inversión en el exterior de las AFP de 47% a 48% en los próximos dos meses. La primera subida será de 0,5%, con lo cual el límite se ampliará a 47,5%, y se hará a partir del 1 de abril próximo. La segunda subida también será de 0,5%, con lo cual se llegará al 48% previsto, y se hará el 1 de mayo próximo.​ "El objetivo de esta...

España. La rebelión de los ‘panteras grises’ con las pensiones

Cualquier rebelión tiene su fundamento, desde los esclavos de Espartaco hasta los estudiantes de mayo del 68. En la actualidad, un segmento tradicionalmente conservador y dócil ha salido a la calle y, por una vez y sin que sirva de precedente, ha conseguido que Mariano Rajoy salga varias veces en los medios para explicar su posición ante un tema candente, como es qué va a pasar con las pensiones públicas, no sólo para los actuales pensionistas, sino para los...

México. Fondos de pensión financiaron 8 de cada 10 pesos para el NAICM

Ocho de cada diez pesos de los recursos captados este viernes en el mercado bursátil mexicano para financiar la construcción del Nuevo Aeropuerto de la Ciudad de México (NAICM), una obra cuestionada por el candidato presidencial Andrés Manuel López Obrador, fueron contratados por las empresas privadas que gestionan los fondos de pensión de los trabajadores, informaron fuentes oficiales. “Es una muy buena señal” para la construcción de la nueva terminal aérea, la principal obra de infraestructura impulsada por el actual...

PEPP: One expat pension product for the entire EU

Expat Pension Holland provides pension consultancy in the Netherlands for expats from all nationalities and locations. With over 20 years of experience on 5 continents, they can advise you on how to cope with the ever-changing expat pension system. Many expats in the Netherlands have resided in other countries and will probably do so again in the near future. These expats might end up with many different kinds of pension claims in several countries. Of course, this is not very...

US. Revamped hybrid retirement plan proposed for rank-and-file state workers

Revamping the pension plans for future rank-and-file state workers will better serve the needs of younger employees and lower the state’s debt risk, according to officials with the Louisiana State Employees’ Retirement System. The Senate Retirement Committee, chaired by Sen. Barrow Peacock, R-Bossier City, is expected to consider Senate Bill 14 on Monday. The legislation, authored by Peacock, is a hybrid retirement plan that would apply to rank-and-file state employees hired on or after Jan. 1, 2020. The monthly pension...

US. Battered by Great Recession, underfunded public pensions to persist

Ten years on from the financial crisis, many U.S. state and local public pension systems are still the worse for wear. Investment returns have been uneven and funding levels have yet to recover. Many pension funds have meanwhile attempted to boost returns by loading up on alternative investments to levels unheard of a decade earlier. “Some just cannot grow their way out of it. We have had several years of stellar (stock market) returns and it barely improved the underfunding situation,”...

UK pensions gender gap widens in past decade, figures show

The gender gap in UK retirement incomes has widened dramatically over the last decade, with the average single woman now £85 a week behind her male counterpart, according to new data. The findings come as companies and organisations continue to report the difference between what they pay male and female staff ahead of the 4 April deadline set by the government, and suggest that gender pay inequalities do not stop after people retire. Steve Webb, the former Lib Dem pensions minister,...