August 2019

27Aug

New Zealand. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern firm on keeping Superannuation age at 65

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says if the National Party hadn't stopped contributions to the Superannuation Fund, there'd be no need to discuss raising the Superannuation eligibility age to 67. National announced yesterday it was sticking to its previous promise to raising the Superannuation eligibility age to 67 from 2037 if it were elected to government next year. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told Morning Report: "Our argument of course has always been that if we continue to make contributions to...

August 27, 2019
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27Aug

Japan estimates cast doubt over public pension sustainability

Japan’s government unveiled estimates on Tuesday that showed public pension benefits steadily declining during coming decades, as it prepares to open up a debate on social security reforms needed to support an aging population. Curbing bulging welfare spending is a vital step toward fixing the industrial world’s heaviest debt burden, which is currently more than twice the size of Japan’s $5 trillion economy. While Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government has made welfare reform a top priority, it has moved...

August 27, 2019
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27Aug

Three financial experts address retirees’ five most pressing worries about the recession and their retirement funds

That has been the question many retirees and people just a few years from retiring have been asking me since experts started warning about a coming recession. They worry about their retirement accounts as the stock market continues to swing up and down as a result of President Trump’s trade war with China. “As this conflict escalates, it is likely to weigh more and more on the stock market and the economy,” The Washington Post’s Heather Long wrote earlier...

August 27, 2019
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26Aug

South Africa Pensioners Oppose Prescribed Assets Plan

South Africa’s intentions to tap state workers’ pension funds to revive a struggling economy would be strongly opposed, the Sunday Times reports, citing a major trade group on pensions. The state workers’ pension funds lobby group doesn’t trust government investing pension funds to bail out struggling state-owned companies such as utility Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd., said Adamus Stemmet, spokesman for the Association of Monitoring and Advocacy of Government Pensions. The investments wouldn’t yield positive returns, Stemmet told the weekly....

August 26, 2019
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26Aug

UK universities brace for strike action in pensions dispute

British universities are heading towards strike action later this year, after employers insisted on requiring staff to pay higher pension contributions despite union warnings that the move would trigger a ballot on industrial action. Read also UK universities’ pension funding hole doubles to £6.6bn The University and College Union (UCU) said it had rejected an offer by the employers, represented by Universities UK (UUK), to swap limited increases in staff pension contributions for a two-year bar on strike action. The...

August 26, 2019
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26Aug

US. Blame The Fed For The Coming Pension Fund Crisis

Most public and private pensions in the United States are underfunded, many severely so. Back when interest rates floated in a historically normal range, there was not a serious issue of pension underfunding. Ultra-low interest rates have pushed pensions into riskier assets such as corporate equities and bonds. Pension demand for corporate bonds has facilitated a surge of debt-funded buybacks. What happens when pensions are no longer able to keep up their massive procurement of corporate debt? American pensions are...

August 26, 2019
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26Aug

Japan. Healthcare for the ageing and elderly worldwide is turning to robots

In America and other ageing societies around the world, it has become common for the elderly to be cared for by their greying children or older workers. That’s largely because the younger labour force is shrinking, and few want to do such low-paying, back-aching work. Japan sees an answer in robots. At Minami Tsukuba nursing home near Tokyo, caregiver Asami Konishi wears a robotic device on her hips that cuts the stress on her back when she bends and...

August 26, 2019
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26Aug

New zealand. National floats company tax cut, recommits to higher pension age

The National Party is floating a cut to New Zealand's 28 per cent company tax rate among a suite of possible tax changes it would promise going into the 2020 election. "New Zealand has one of the highest company tax rates in the OECD at 28 per cent and we collect the fourth largest share of tax in the OECD from companies," the party's leader, Simon Bridges, said today at a launch of the party's economic policy discussion document...

August 26, 2019
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23Aug

South Africa’s Ramaphosa calls for discussion on utilising pension funds for projects

South Africa should discuss using worker pension funds to finance development and infrastructure projects, a proposal that has the backing of the country’s largest labour federation, President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Thursday. Read also South Africa should look to pensions instead of an IMF bailout: ANC In its 2019 poll manifesto ahead of the May general election, the ruling African National Congress (ANC) mentioned investigating prescribed assets - where the government authorises the investment of retirement savings in certain developmental...

August 23, 2019
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23Aug

Raising the retirement age to 75 won’t fix the UK’s pension problem

Like most developed countries across the world, the UK’s population is tipping rapidly into old age. By 2042, 24 per cent of people living in the UK will be aged 65 or older, up from 18 per cent in 2016. The all important ratio between working people and pensioners is shifting, and as a result, the weight of the financial burden is growing. Earlier this week, centre-right think tank The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), chaired by former secretary...

August 23, 2019
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