November 2019
22Nov

Fiscal Incidence in Moldova: A Commitment to Equity Analysis

By Alexandru Cojocaru, Mikhail Matytsin, Valeriu Prohnitchi This paper uses methods developed by the Commitment to Equity Institute and data from the Household Budget Survey to assess the effects of government taxation and social spending on poverty and inequality in Moldova. The paper presents the first detailed distributional analysis of the tax and expenditure sides of the fiscal system, examining in particular the contribution of different taxes and transfers to poverty and inequality reduction in Moldova, as well as...

November 22, 2019
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22Nov

Australia. Super tax breaks outweigh pension payments

Superannuation tax concessions provide higher income earners with greater taxpayer assistance than those on low incomes who rely on the age pension, according to a paper released by the government's review into retirement incomes. The consultation paper, which outlines the starting point for the review and the principles that will guide it, says the overall level of public support provided by the retirement income system "should be targeted to those who need it most''. But modelling provided by the...

November 22, 2019
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21Nov

Why taxes on pensioners in Germany have risen up to 500 percent since 2010

The tax burden on pensioners has increased fivefold within ten years in some cases, according to figures released by the Finance Ministry on Wednesday. For example, new pensioners now have to pay €430 in income tax per year on a monthly gross pension of €1500, compared with €79 in 2010. The figures were released on Wednesday, as part of an inquiry submitted to the Federal Ministry of Finance by Die Linke. For an individual with a monthly gross...

November 21, 2019
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18Nov

Pensioners struggling to survive join Chile protests

Seventy-seven-year-old María Gonzalez is tired of waking up, Monday to Friday, to sell toilet paper in the Chilean capital. Her meager $146 monthly pension puts her below the poverty line, which in Chile is around $222 a month. “I feel tired. Honestly, I’m exhausted. These last 15 days that I have been at home, I slept and ate,” Gonzalez told The Associated Press after protests shut down public transport and made it impossible for her to reach the city to...

November 18, 2019
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18Nov

Dutch government tries to avoid cuts to pension payouts

The Dutch government is trying to avert a crisis in the country’s €1.6tn pension industry, with millions of pensioners facing cuts in their retirement income for the first time next year. Trade union and pension fund officials expect the Dutch government to intervene this week with measures to avoid significant cuts to many people’s retirement income by loosening the sector’s strict funding rules, at least temporarily. The Netherlands is widely considered to have one of the world’s best-funded and most generous...

November 18, 2019
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15Nov

Fiscal Incidence in Moldova: A Commitment to Equity Analysis

By Alexandru Cojocaru, Mikhail Matytsin, Valeriu Prohnitchi T his paper uses methods developed by the Commitment to Equity Institute and data from the Household Budget Survey to assess the effects of government taxation and social spending on poverty and inequality in Moldova. The paper presents the first detailed distributional analysis of the tax and expenditure sides of the fiscal system, examining in particular the contribution of different taxes and transfers to poverty and inequality reduction in Moldova, as well as...

November 15, 2019
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14Nov

UK. Pensioners lose decades of savings in 24 hours

As part of a campaign called ScamSmart, the UK Financial Conduct Authority and The Pensions Regulator have revealed £82,000 (AU$154,202) is the average amount victims of pension scams lost in 2018. It would take an ordinary working saver 22 years to amass that amount, according to the FCA. Despite the significant cost of scams, 24% of people surveyed admitted to deciding on a pension offer within less than 24 hours. One of the main warning signs of a scam...

November 14, 2019
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13Nov

Zimbabwe. NSSA increases pension payouts

The National Social Security Authority (NSSA) has more than doubled its minimum pensions from $80 to $200 a month, while workers' compensation scheme minimum pensions have been tripled from $80 to $240. Read also The Monetary Benefit of Delaying Retirement The increases have been backdated to October 1 with the payments due from today. NSSA funeral grants on all schemes have been pushed up from $300 to $2 000. In a statement yesterday, NSSA board chairman Dr Cuthbert Chidoori said...

November 13, 2019
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13Nov

British expats face losing £50k with pension freeze

The 666,000 retired expats who live in Europe and a handful of countries further afield, such as the US, Jamaica and the Philippines see their payments regularly uprated. But 528,000 have their pensions frozen, the vast majority of them living in Commonwealth countries including Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa. The state pension only increases annually if a person lives in the European Economic Area (EEA), Gibraltar, Switzerland, and countries that have a social security agreement with the...

November 13, 2019
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12Nov

Switzerland. Aging in good health: The inequalities are widening

Life expectancy in Switzerland has been growing steadily for decades. But have these additional years been spent in good health or, on the contrary, do they only prolong the ills of an aging population? In an attempt to answer this question, researchers from the University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland, collated data from the Swiss National Cohort (SNC) and the Swiss Health Surveys between 1990 and 2015, all within the framework of the "LIVES" National Centre of Competence in Research...

November 12, 2019
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