August 2018

01Aug

Japan. Behind the Scenes / Only 40% pay national pension premiums

With many people, including the self-employed, not paying into the national pension plan, the system is becoming increasingly hollowed out. The officially announced payment rate is in the 60 percent range, but the actual situation is worse. The risk is growing that many elderly people will only be able to receive a meager pension in the future. Up for 6 straight years The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry announced in June that the national pension premium payment rate (see below) in...

August 1, 2018
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01Aug

China is trying to talk its way out of a growing problem with its military veterans

BEIJING (Reuters) - A senior Chinese officer appealed to military veterans on Tuesday not to take complaints about their treatment to the streets and to "rationally" lodge appeals for redress. At the annual meeting of parliament in March, China set up a Ministry of Veterans Affairs as part of a broader government reshuffle, aiming to better look after former soldiers whose complaints about poor treatment have flared into scattered protests in recent years. In February 2017, Chinese military veterans staged two...

August 1, 2018
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01Aug

UK. Calls for HMRC to scrap rule penalising parents’ pensions

The taxman is under pressure to ditch a rule that costs busy new parents thousands of pounds in state pension entitlement. Parents who have taken time out of work to raise their baby get just three months during the frantic first weeks of having a newborn to register for child benefits with HMRC, allowing them to continue to build up their state pension though they are not employed. Those who failed to do this have already missed out on as much...

August 1, 2018
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July 2018

31Jul

Under-Rewarded Efforts. The Elusive Quest for Prosperity in Mexico

By Santiago Levy My hope is that this book will appeal to all those interested in Mexico’s development. With that purpose in mind, I tried to write a book with a minimum of specialized language and technical terms, so it could be read by many. I hope academic economists find that the central elements of the narrative are sufficiently supported by empirical evidence, even if not all of them are treated with the technical rigor that they would like to...

July 31, 2018
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31Jul

Canada. Morneau Shepell releases the results of its Performance Universe of Pension Managers’ Pooled Funds

Morneau Shepell (TSX: MSI) has released the results of its Performance Universe of Pension Managers' Pooled Funds for the second quarter of 2018. According to the report, in the second quarter of 2018, diversified pooled fund managers posted a median return of 2.9 per cent before management fees. "Most stock markets delivered excellent results in the second quarter, generating positive pension fund returns. Canadian and U.S. equities did particularly well, with returns of 6.8 per cent for the S&P/TSX and 5.6...

July 31, 2018
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31Jul

UK. Rush to cash-in small pensions will leave thousands below ‘acceptable’ retirement income, warns Just Group

Cashing in small pension pots early to rely on State benefits in retirement could leave many thousands of people struggling to achieve an acceptable income in later life, suggests new analysis by Just Group. The warning comes following the publication of Minimum Income Standards (MIS) by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) reflecting the public’s views on how much weekly income is needed to achieve a minimum acceptable standard of living in the UK today. The JRF’s 2018 report suggest the MIS...

July 31, 2018
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31Jul

3 arrested after Russian opposition rally on pension age

MOSCOW (AP) — Three Russian opposition leaders were detained by police minutes after a demonstration to protest a government plan to raise the age for receiving state retirement pensions ended Sunday. The demonstration in central Moscow had been authorized by city authorities and attracted thousands of people. No reason for the arrests was immediately given. Oleg Stepanov, a top aide to Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, reported his detention on Twitter. He posted a photo of himself and the two others...

July 31, 2018
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31Jul

Korea. NPS adopting stewardship code

The National Pension Service (NPS), Korea’s largest institutional investor, is adopting a stewardship code that will allow it to engage in management decisions of the companies it invests in. The decision is getting strong opposition from the business community. After holding two meetings since last week, the National Pension Fund Management Committee decided to exercise limited rights when companies it invests in are hurting the interest of its clients, which is the Korean public with pensions, according to the Ministry of...

July 31, 2018
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31Jul

Nigeria nets $26,6b in pension funds

The National Pension Commission (PenCom) said that the total pension fund assets stood at $26.6 billion (about N8.14 trillion) as at May, 2018.The Commission said in a statement signed by its spokesman, Mr. Peter Aghahowa, on Sunday in Abuja that the assets rose from $24.5 billion in December 2017, to $26.6 billion in May 2018. It also said that $16.9 billion had been invested in Federal Government Securities by the Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs). According to the statement, the investment represented...

July 31, 2018
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30Jul

The Winning Combination of Surviving Together: Poor and Their Resilience Built Through Relationships

By Arun Keshav (Amity University, Rajasthan) Social capital happens to be one of the most important assets that poor possess. It is this safety net on which they fall upon at time of crisis and also draw security to reduce their vulnerabilities to several risks but what strength lies behind this social capital? Why poor invest so much in their social relations? In this article the author tries to understand what lies behind these and the winning combination of surviving...

July 30, 2018
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