January 2021
08Jan

How Measuring Replacement Income Can Aid Assessment of Public Pension Plans

Pew evaluates a key predictor of career workers’ standard of living in retirement. The Pew Charitable Trusts uses three retirement security metrics to assist policymakers in evaluating how well their plans are expected to prepare public workers for retirement. This fact sheet focuses on the replacement income ratio, a commonly cited indicator that illustrates whether a worker might expect to maintain his or her standard of living in retirement.1 This ratio—also referred to as the replacement rate—is the percentage of a worker’s...

January 8, 2021
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08Jan

The Demand for Simple and Flexible Retirement Products

By Pim Koopmans, Marike Knoef, Max van Lent Many people save too little for retirement. This paper studies – using a stated choice experiment – whether simplicity and flexibility can increase the demand for retirement products. We compare the willingness-to-pay (WTP) for self-employed workers and employees, and find that the self-employed are willing to give up 8% of post-retirement benefit in order to avoid having to provide information about their financial situation. In addition, self-employed workers are willing to...

January 8, 2021
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December 2020

18Dec

Study: Over 142 million people aged 60 years are unable to meet their basic daily needs

At least 14% of all people aged 60 years and over ̶ more than 142 million people ̶ are currently unable to meet all their basic daily needs according to the Baseline report for the Decade of Healthy Ageing, released by the World Health Organization today. Read also UN organizations launch new initiative to improve the lives of older people The Baseline report brings together data available for measuring healthy ageing, defined by WHO as "the...

December 18, 2020
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15Dec

Chile’s Great Pension Raid

By Andrés Velasco Because the policies they produce are so ludicrous, populist cycles eventually crash against reality and come to an end. Sadly, for too many Chileans, the crash may come when they reach old age with no retirement savings. How should families pay for the costs of the pandemic? The conservative government’s finance minister proposes that the state should help.Thanks but no thanks, retort members of the country’s congress. Families can use their own accumulated pension savings, and the...

December 15, 2020
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15Dec

Malta. Three in ten pensioners at risk of poverty

The proportion of pensioners at risk of living in poverty in Malta is increasing year on year, reaching 29.1 per cent of over 65s last year. And older women are more likely to teeter on the brink of poverty due to having to rely solely on their husband's pension. While all other age groups have seen a reduction in poverty since 2013, those aged over 65 have seen an increase. The latest details were revealed in an evaluation of...

December 15, 2020
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14Dec

Ireland. A new model for pensions required

Sir, – Reading of the restoration of pension payments to 4,000 of the highest-paid public office-holders and pay increases for judges under the public pay agreement is infuriating. One wonders why these are being restored at all during a crisis, with unprecedented public spending commitments to compensate thousands who have lost their jobs and livelihoods during the pandemic. We are also informed that a number of senior HSE executives will receive lump-sum payments of €300,000 upon retirement and annual...

December 14, 2020
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03Dec

An Assessment of Affordability and Impact of a Social Old Age Pension in Rwanda

By Jean Bosco Mbarute In low-income countries and middle-income countries, the coverage of contributory pension scheme is low and even stagnant. At the same time, older people are less able to rely on family and community support as a result of growing urbanization and migration. Then low-income workers and the poor simply cannot save enough to prepare for their old age. As a remedy, many countries are considering or have already implemented various forms of retirement income transfers aiming...

December 3, 2020
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November 2020

20Nov

Bridging Japan’s Pension Savings and Returns Gap: A Focus on Younger Generations

In May 2020, the Japanese National Diet passed pension system reform legislation broadening the eligibility of part -time workers – mainly women and the elderly – for the public pension system and raising the maximum age to start receiving benefits to 75 from the current 70. Issues surrounding the “super-aging” society are among the most pressing public policy priorities in Japan, and this latest legislative change is just one of many attempts to reform the country’s pension system. Japanese...

November 20, 2020
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12Nov

Factors Associated with the Ownership of Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs): Applying the Theory of Planned Behavior

By Frank Magwegwe Despite the importance of retirement savings, many individuals retire with lack of adequate retirement savings. Applying the Theory of Planned Behavior, we developed a model in which psychological factors influence the calculation of retirement savings needs, which in turn influences the ownership of independent retirement accounts. The results showed that favorable attitudes, strong social norms, and perceived behavioral control are associated with calculating retirement savings needs. Also, calculating retirement savings needs as well as perceived behavioral...

November 12, 2020
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05Nov

The Great Demographic Reversal: Ageing Societies, Waning Inequality, and an Inflation Revival

By Charles Goodhart, Manoj Pradhan This original and panoramic book proposes that the underlying forces of demography and globalisation will shortly reverse three multi-decade global trends – it will raise inflation and interest rates, but lead to a pullback in inequality. “Whatever the future holds”, the authors argue, “it will be nothing like the past”. Deflationary headwinds over the last three decades have been primarily due to an enormous surge in the world’s available labour supply, owing...

November 5, 2020
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