September 2025

Prospective elderly residents in Indonesia are vulnerable to poverty.

The number of individuals aged 30 to 50 years, or potential elderly, in Indonesia reaches approximately 87.7 million people. About one-third of them are actively working and earning low wages. Their median wage is only two-thirds of the average wage/salary of workers, employees, and civil servants in Indonesia, which amounts to Rp 3.09 million per month. The Deputy Head of the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), Sonny Harry B Harmadi, stated on Tuesday (26/8/2025) that such groups are generally located in...

July 2025

Addressing the Challenges for Asset-backed Pensions in Indonesia

By Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development This report assesses the challenges to ensuring adequate benefits in retirement for the Indonesian population. The design of the asset-backed pension system aims to help individuals to accumulate resources to finance their retirement. However, the rules of the system may not help achieve the desired objectives, appropriate schemes or vehicles may not always be available and individuals may not necessarily make use of those available. This can lead to retirement savings gaps that...

September 2024

Outrage Over Pension Cuts in Indonesia: Key Insights on Contributions and Withdrawal Options

New Pension Program Will Cut Employee Salaries: What You Need to Know The implementation of a new pension program will lead to salary deductions for workers. This mandatory contribution aims to enhance retirement benefits. However, many employees are worried about the impact on their take-home pay. Labor unions are actively voicing their opposition, especially in regions like South Kalimantan. They argue that the additional deductions will strain workers’ finances. Warning! The new pension deductions may significantly affect workers’ salaries. Employees should prepare...

October 2023

Indonesia. Minister instructs to form joint secretariat for serving elderly

Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture Muhadjir Effendy instructed the related deputy to form a joint secretariat to support services for the elderly. "I ask the related deputy to make a joint secretariat in this office to provide all elderly services," he stated in a seminar held at the ministry's office in commemorating International Day for Older Persons here on Friday. Muhadjir underscored the need for a representative joint secretariat to support the government's preparations for facing the aging population. He...

February 2022

Extending pension policy in emerging Asia: An overlapping-generations model analysis for Indonesia

By George Kudrna, John Piggott & Phitawat Poonpolkul This paper examines the economy-wide effects of government policies to extend public pensions in emerging Asia - particularly pertinent given the region’s large informal sector and rapid population ageing. We first document stylized facts about Indonesia’s labour force, drawing on the Indonesian Family Life Survey (IFLS). This household survey is then used to calibrate micro behaviours in a stochastic, overlapping-generations (OLG) model with formal and informal labour. The benchmark model is calibrated...

January 2021

Investing in People : Social Protection for Indonesia’s 2045 Vision

By Holmemo, Camilla Acosta, Pablo, George, Tina Palacios, Robert J. Pinxten, Juul Sen, Shonali, Tiwari, Sailesh The Government of Indonesia's Vision for 2045 sets an ambitious path that will require significant investments in human capital and social protection Indonesia continues to set ambitious goals for its growth and development. The Government of Indonesia's (GoI) vision for 2045—when the country celebrates 100 years of independence—is to achieve high income status and reduce poverty to nearly zero. In addition to sustained...

September 2018

Pensions and living with your kids

By Markus Goldstein When a government implements a policy, there is often a question about how it will interact and/or displace existing informal practices. For example, awhile back there was a lot of discussion around how government provided insurance would displace (or not) informal risk sharing arrangements that may have been doing a good job of protecting some people from risk. But it’s hard to address this kind of question deeply in a randomized control trial. A lot of the informal...