September 2019

23Sep

UK. Universities: we fight for security and pensions

Philip Inman gave a misleading account of the University and College Union’s campaigns to defend university pensions and fight for job security and a manageable workload (“Academics are fighting the wrong battle over pensions”, Business). It is not correct to suggest that we are focusing on the fight to save our pension scheme at the expense of seeking better working conditions and more secure contracts for university staff, especially junior staff. In fact, UCU and its predecessor unions have...

September 23, 2019
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23Sep

Australia. Indexation brings age-pension bonus for retirees

All pensioners, whether they receive a full or part pension, will receive one if not two pension bonuses this month. They will receive more on a fortnightly basis as a result of Friday’s indexation of the pension rates and thresholds. The maximum single age pension has increased by $7.20 a fortnight to $933.40 and, for couples, to $703.50 a fortnight each. Department of Human Services general manager Hank Jongen said that the first payments to include the indexation increase...

September 23, 2019
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20Sep

Croatian government backs down over pension reform

Croatia’s government has backed down over plans to increase the pensionable age from 65 to 67. The announcement came right after several trade unions asked people to take the streets to force the government to hold a referendum and to consider the 700,000 signature collected under the initiative 67 is too much. Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said the government will present a bill on amendments to the Pension Insurance Act which will “respect the will of citizens.” However, it...

September 20, 2019
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20Sep

UK. Pensions and healthcare at risk from no-deal Brexit

The financial advisory firm’s CEO, Nigel Green, warned that pension providers could lose the automatic right to make payments into European-based banks under no deal. These seamless transactions are currently possible thanks to a system known as ‘passporting’, a reciprocal arrangement of EU laws that allow payments across borders. Hundreds of thousands of pensioners could see this disrupted or completely stopped overnight, according to Green, who accused Boris Johnson of not even trying to get a deal. “The end...

September 20, 2019
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20Sep

China’s workforce saving more for retirement amid concerns about state pension, survey finds

China should not be alarmed by a much slower economic growth rate in the coming years, perhaps as low as 5 or even 4 per cent, with the economy now large enough to still create sufficient jobs at these growth rates, according to three prominent Chinese economists who advise the government. The headline gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate slowed to 6.2 per cent in the second quarter this year, the lowest figure since quarterly records began in March...

September 20, 2019
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19Sep

German women pensioners receive 26% less than men

A study published on Tuesday showed that female pensioners in Germany receive on average 26% less in pension payments than men. The gender pension gap means that retired women receive an average of €140 less per month than men. The study estimates that this means that when entering retirement, the average German woman would need around an extra €25,000 ($27,500) in savings in order to close the gap for their retirement. The research was carried out at the University...

September 19, 2019
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19Sep

Croatia’s trade unions want referendum on pension reform

Trade unions in Croatia are urging the government to hold a referendum on planned pension reforms, which would increase the retirement age from 65 to 67. The new law will also include a 3.6 per cent pension reduction for every year of early retirement and the trade union campaign has called for this to be reduced to 2.4 per cent. “There must be a referendum because the will of the citizens must be respected,” said the leader of the...

September 19, 2019
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19Sep

Ukraine has launched a mobile app “Pension Fund”

Thus, Ukrainians have the opportunity of access to the electronic services Fund in a convenient format using smartphones and tablets, reports the Chronicle.info with reference to itc.ua. The project “Pension Fund of Ukraine in the smartphone” designed with the purpose of realization of development of the system of electronic services “E-pension”. In the first phase the application is available for owners of Android smartphones (version 4.4 and above, download from the link), and later will be released version for...

September 19, 2019
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19Sep

Greece. New system for auxiliary pensions from 2021

Although the committee of experts set up to study the details of the new system still has a number of issues to work through, the Labor Ministry appears to have decided on the main principles of the new mechanism. These principles will include delinking the need to get the main pension first, before collecting the auxiliary one. Deputy Minister for Social Security Notis Mitarakis says that workers will be able to collect their auxiliary pensions at any point between...

September 19, 2019
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19Sep

Brazil’s Petros Pension Aims to Increase Private Equity Investment in 2020

One of the largest state-run pension funds in Brazil could gradually resume investing in private equity next year, following a period of cutting back its exposure to the asset class and changes in the rules governing the investment vehicles themselves. “It’s a move that will happen in slow motion,” Alexandre Mathias, chief investment officer of the employee pension fund at state-run oil giant Petróleo Brasileiro SA, or Petrobras, said of the plan to resume making fresh investments in the...

September 19, 2019
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