July 2026

EU. Pension expenditure rises by 6.2% in July, reaching a record high of €14.432 million

Pension expenditure reached €14.4319 billion in July, up 6.2% compared with the same month last year, according to figures provided by the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, which include the adjustment approved by the Government for 2026. In the seventh month of the year, 10,517,634 pensions were paid to more than 9.5 million people. Specifically, there were 6.73 million retirement pensions, more than 2.3 million widow’s and widower’s pensions under the Social Security system, 1.06 million permanent disability pensions, 336,294 orphan’s pensions and 46,895 pensions paid to...

Pensions at a Glance Asia/Pacific 2024

By OECD This study presents a range of indicators to enable comparisons between the pension systems of economies in the Asia/Pacific region. It also includes data for the larger countries that are members of the Organisation for Economic Co‑operation and Development (OECD). The report was drafted by Andrew Reilly of the Social Policy Division of the OECD Secretariat. Lucy Hulett prepared the manuscript for publication. For this sixth report we are again indebted to the national experts who contributed to...

Malnutrition in Older Adults: The Hidden Threat to Healthy Longevity

By Janet Helm  When you think about malnutrition, you may picture famine or starving children in developing countries. But in the United States and across the globe, malnutrition among older adults is a quiet epidemic hiding in plain sight. A comprehensive meta-analysis of 98 studies found that about one in five older adults worldwide is malnourished, and in the Americas specifically, that number climbs to more than 20%. The more rigorous Global Leadership Initiative on Malnutrition criteria, which are now endorsed...

Pension Income and Post-Retirement Labor Supply

By Fabian Kindermann, Carla Krolage, Sebastian Kunz, Manuel Pannier & Karoline Ströhlein This paper provides causal evidence on how pension income affects labor supply after retirement. We exploit the introduction of the German Earned Income Pension Credit (Grundrente), which permanently increased pension income for retirees with long contribution histories and comparatively low lifetime earnings. The reform generates exogenous variation in non-labor income without creating additional labor supply distortions, allowing us to isolate pure income effects. Using administrative data covering the...

June 2026

Hong Kong Elderly Poverty Rises, 65 Retirement Age Questioned

Hong Kong elderly poverty is expected to worsen over the next few decades, while the long-held assumption that people should stop working at 65 is being questioned. In a piece examining the issue, longer lifespans and uneven retirement savings are said to make old age more fragile if policy stays unchanged. The question is simple, but the stakes are high: does 65 still make sense as the age to stop working if life expectancy has climbed to 85 or more?...

The Roadmap for Eradicating Poverty Beyond Growth – Report of the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights

By Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights The Roadmap for Eradicating Poverty Beyond Growth (Addendum to report A/HRC/62/42) provides advice to States on the eradication of extreme poverty in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda. The Roadmap aims to assist States in implementing the Guiding Principles on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, adopted by the Human Rights Council in its resolution 21/11 and which the General Assembly welcomed in its resolution 67/164 of 20 December 2012. The Roadmap...

Vanguard’s alarming state of retirement in 2026: The average American has $167,970 in their account—or they have $44,115

For 25 years, Vanguard has been keeping score on the great American retirement experiment. Every year, it publishes the most comprehensive snapshot in the industry of how workers save, how much they accumulate, and whether any of it will be enough. The 2026 edition is out. Spoiler: It depends on which number you’re looking at. The number Vanguard leads with is $167,970—the average 401(k) balance across nearly 5 million accounts the firm administered at year-end 2025. That’s a record high, up 13% from...

South Africa. Has the retirement industry underestimated inflation risk?

The South African Reserve Bank's higher-for-longer interest rate outlook and revised inflation expectations have sharpened a critical challenge for retirement savers and funds: generating real returns is becoming more difficult, annuity pricing and liability assumptions may need recalibration, and portfolios designed for a low-inflation environment could struggle to deliver the outcomes members expect. For years, trustee agendas have been dominated by corporate governance, regulatory compliance, and investment performance. But as the macroeconomic landscape shifts, it’s becoming clear that parts of the industry...

New Zealand. Pensioners facing $100 a week rent rise

Pensioners could face rent hikes of almost $100 per week under an Ashburton District Council proposal. The council currently charges 55% of the market rate for some of its 102 elderly persons housing units, but is looking at increasing it to an 80% minimum. This would mean rent increases from $4 to $96, depending on whether the residents could access Government accommodation support. The elderly person housing units are situated in six complexes spread throughout Ashburton, Methven, and Rakaia in Canterbury. In 2021,...

Pensions UK backs action on adequacy as retirement living costs increase

The latest Retirement Living Standards (RLS) update from Pensions UK has highlighted the scale of the retirement savings challenge facing UK workers, as the Pensions Commission considers whether minimum automatic enrolment contribution rates should rise in future. The annual standards, calculated by the Centre for Research in Social Policy at Loughborough University, show that a minimum retirement lifestyle now costs £13,900 (€16,000) a year for a single-person household and £22,500 for a two-person household. A ‘moderate’ lifestyle costs £32,700 and...