July 2019

09Jul

Africa. Need for pension harmonization

In a press release dated July 5, 2019, the government of Sierra Leone through the Financial Secretary announced that out of a total sum of approximately 67 Billion Leones (SLL 66,830,114,540.00) owed as pensions to 371 former political government employees - including the former president, vice-presidents, former ministers and deputies, ambassadors and deputies, information and cultural Attachés, heads of agencies and departments - a fifty percent payment had been effected to the above erstwhile officials as pensions and gratuities,...

July 9, 2019
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09Jul

EIOPA establishes Expert Practitioner Panel on the Pan-European Personal Pension Product (PEPP)

The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) kicks-off its policy work on Level 2 measures for the PEPP Regulation Challenging and diverse scope of deliverables - and tight timeframes - call for innovative and efficient solutions Today, the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) established its Expert Practitioner Panel on the Pan-European Personal Pension Product (PEPP). To deliver on the forthcoming PEPP Regulation's policy perspective to design a PEPP that exhibits high quality product features around information...

July 9, 2019
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09Jul

UK. The changing role of DB pensions

Defined benefit pensions, once so dominant in the UK occupational pensions landscape, are slowly disappearing from the private sector. This long-term trend now feels unstoppable. There are only about 1.2m active members still accruing benefits in private sector DB schemes today, and 40 per cent of private DB schemes are now closed to future accrual – almost double the proportion that were closed to accrual a decade ago, according to The Pensions Regulator. TPR reports only 14 per cent...

July 9, 2019
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09Jul

Threats Remain to Brazil’s Pension Bill Despite Investor Cheer

While investors cheered the progress of Brazil’s key pension reform bill last week, there’s no certainty that its passage through the rest of the legislative process will prove smooth. A day after the lower house special committee approved the text, President Jair Bolsonaro said there are some errors in the bill that need correcting. Members of his party, the PSL, are grumbling about the lack of special treatment for police. Meanwhile time is fast running out for a vote...

July 9, 2019
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09Jul

Ghana. IFS National Pension Dialogue

In 2006, Ghana began a review of its pension system to identify ways of ensuring better income security for Ghanaian pensioners. The review culminated in the enactment of a new National Pension Act (Act 766) in 2008. The law establishes a new contributory three-tier pension scheme and a regulatory oversight body, the National Pension Regulatory Authority (NPRA), to oversee administration of the composite pension scheme. Under the law, which remains in force today, 13.5% of an employee’s basic salary...

July 9, 2019
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08Jul

European elections 2019: will the UK’s new MEPs get pensions even if they only work a few months until Brexit?

MEPs get their pension from the age of 63 The European Parliament is known to have a fairly attractive pension scheme for candidates who win election. But Brexit has raised questions about what will happen to MEPs’ pensions after Britain leaves the EU and whether any candidates from the May elections will benefit. Will new UK MEPs get a pension? The UK MEPs who are elected for the first time this year are unlikely to be entitled to a pension from the European...

July 8, 2019
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08Jul

1 in 4 Americans don’t plan to retire despite realities of aging

Nearly one-quarter of Americans say they never plan to retire, according to a poll that suggests a disconnection between individuals’ retirement plans and the realities of aging in the workforce. Experts say illness, injury, layoffs and caregiving responsibilities often force older workers to leave their jobs sooner than they’d like. According to the poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, 23 percent of workers, including nearly 2 in 10 of those over 50, don’t expect to stop working....

July 8, 2019
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08Jul

Australia. Pension payments could increase with change to deeming rate

More than half a million Australians could have their pension payments increased with the government on the cusp of making a significant change. Labor claims if the government lowers the deeming rate by the same amount the Reserve Bank has lowered interest rates, some part-pensioners will be anywhere between $62 and $3875 a year better off.The government is unlikely to lower it by that much because it would almost wipe out its surplus but hundreds of thousands of pensioners...

July 8, 2019
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08Jul

Greater percentage of Ghanaian pensioners live in penury

Lesley Dwight Mensah, an economist at the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS), a local economic policy think tank explained to Xinhua that the reason for this condition was the lack of monthly pension payment for most people after the end of their service. “Only about 14 percent of Ghanaians in retirement age (population of 60 and above) receive a pension. As of the end of 2018, there were 1.9 million people in Ghana aged 60; and just about 270,000...

July 8, 2019
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08Jul

Irish pension funds diversify amid uncertain outlook

Pension funds here have lowered their exposure and diversified into property, infrastructure and hedge funds according to a new report from Mercer. The survey of 876 institutional investors across 12 countries managing assets of around €1 trillion found average equity allocations for Irish defined benefit schemes have fallen and now stand at just 28% compared to 34% in 2018 The Mercer's 2019 European Asset Allocation survey also found that bond allocations remain broadly at 50%, while allocations to alternative...

July 8, 2019
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