August 2021

Access, participation and income: The state of retirement plan coverage in the U.S.

A study from The Inclusive Wealth Building Initiative starkly illustrates the gulf between those employees with access to an employer-sponsored retirement plan and those who participate—and, perhaps unsurprisingly, much of that participation depends on income levels. The Initiative, a project of The Economic Innovation Group, derived its data from various surveys, including the Census Bureau’s Survey of Income and Program Participation and the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ National Compensation Survey. The study also used the 2019 Current Population Survey’s Annual...

It’s time to give essential workers the protections they deserve

The world's essential workers have kept things running during the pandemic. But many still lack the protections they deserve, such as maternity pay, pensions or paid sickness leave. An upcoming summit, Essential for Recovery, will give these workers a voice and a space in which to address corporate and social leaders. Justina Kgoele has been picking waste in South Africa for the last 25 years. Her income sustains her family, and her work helps to protect children in her community from picking...

July 2021

Ghana. Minister for Employment initiates mass pension enrolment programme

The Minister for Employment and Labour Relations, Ignatius Barfour Awuah has initiated a mass pension enrolment programme by paying for a year’s pension contribution for 10 individuals in the Upper Manya Krobo District in the Eastern Region. At an outreach program at Asesewa in the Eastern Region, to sensitise people on pensions in the area organised for informal sector workers in Asesewa by the National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA), Mr. Bafour Awuah said the gesture was to encourage the people...

Nigeria’s pension penetration level low, says PenOp

Nigeria should deepened its penetration beyond 11 per cent, the President, Pension Fund Operators Association of Nigeria (PenOP), Mr Wale Odutola, has said. Odutola spoke at the just-concluded National Assembly retreat in Lagos. He stated that there was the need to note the areas where the industry lags behind other countries, one of which is level of pension penetration. He said this became necessary because South Africa’s pension penetration is 19 per cent, Kenya 20 per cent and United Kingdom 77...

UK. The state pension is slated to rise by 8%, but thousands of retirees will be left out.

State pension payments may increase by 8% next year, but some retirees will be excluded from the increase. Individuals who have achieved state pension age might receive considerable financial assistance through state pension payments. Many people will have contributed a significant amount of money to the National Insurance system over the course of their lives in order to receive the largest state pension feasible. To help, the government uses a triple lock system that increases the state pension total by...

June 2021

Bright Africa 2020 Pension Industry. Modernising pension policies to future-proof long-term savings

By RISCURA The latest Bright Africa Pensions research highlights how African demographics are evolving and the impact of this on long-term savings. There is no doubt that Africa’s population is and will remain the world’s largest youthful cohort for a long-time to come, so serious thought, planning and innovation are urgently required to address the risk of individuals outliving their retirement savings. Research conducted by Albouy and Nogues (2019) shows that globally, life expectancy measured at age 65, has grown...

East Africa’s countries race to form inclusive, affordable pension schemes for informal sector

East African Community partner states are in the process of creating micro-pension schemes for employees in the informal sector to address the low pension coverage in the region, estimated at less than 10 percent. Read also Bright Africa 2020 Pension Industry. Modernising pension policies to future-proof long-term savings A new pension sector survey by global investment firm RisCura shows that Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya are among African countries racing to create affordable and all-inclusive old-age saving schemes for the informal sector...

May 2021

Population and Labor Dynamics in Large Informal Markets: Implications for Pension Systems with Evidence from Ecuador

By Margarita Velín-Fárez This paper reviews Ecuador’s population structure and labor market dynamics with a focus on the causes of inequality, particularly among older adults receiving contributory pensions. This serves as a basis for characterizing the main restrictions that the Ecuadorian pension system must address. This analysis is valuable for three key reasons. First, the population structure of many less developed countries is converging toward that of developed countries, with older age groups increasing in proportion. Second, Ecuador is among...

April 2021

India. National Pension System: PFRDA to extend entry age to avail benefits

Senior citizens who have not yet got into the National Pension System (NPS) bandwagon may have some cause for cheer. Pension regulator PFRDA plans to soon extend the maximum entry age for availing NPS benefit to 70 years from the current 65 years, its Chairman Supratim Bandyopadhyay said on Thursday. Read also EU insurance regulator cracks down on unit-linked policy costs Simultaneously, the exit age limit is proposed to be extended from 70 years to 75 years, he said at a...

Financial Inclusion in Malaysia Distilling Lessons for Other Countries

By World Bank Group The World Bank Group’s current partnership with Malaysia is focused on knowledge-sharing. It is centered on support for Malaysia’s vision to join the ranks of high-income economies by 2020 through inclusive and sustainable growth, and to share its lessons with developing countries. In March 2016, the World Bank Group officially launched its Global Knowledge and Research Hub in Malaysia. The new Hub is the first of its kind, serving both as a field presence in Malaysia and...