April 2026

UK. Annuity rates rise to 7.62% in March

Average annuity rates increased to 7.62 per cent in March, boosting potential retirement income, the Standard Life Annuity Rate Tracker has shown. Annuity pricing improved by 1.46 per cent over the quarter from 7.51 per cent at the end of 2025, as long‑term interest rates remained high. The data showed that a healthy 65-year-old with £100,000 of pension savings could have received an annual income of up to £7,620, representing an extra £3,000 for men and £4,000 for women over a lifetime. Standard...

Kenya. Audit raises red flag over Sh118.5 billion pension payments to ghost retirees

An audit has uncovered persistent irregularities in the pension system, raising fresh concerns over the possibility of ghost pensioners, incomplete records and questionable payments running into billions of shillings. The Auditor General's report covering the financial year ending June 2024 reveals that billions of shillings in pension payments remain under scrutiny due to gaps in records, delayed processing and long-standing reconciliation issues. In her report to Parliament, Gathungu questioned the accuracy of Sh118.55 billion pension payments, which include Sh61.68 billion for...

March 2026

Ghana. Unpaid Tier-2 Pensions: A Silent Crisis Demanding Urgent National Attention

In recent months, a troubling pattern has emerged across Ghana’s pension landscape. One that raises serious questions about accountability, transparency, and the welfare of retirees. Numerous complaints from pensioners, particularly those who retired in 2025, point to persistent non-payment of Tier-2 pension benefits. These are not isolated grievances; they reflect a systemic issue that demands urgent national scrutiny. At the center of these concerns are two key institutions: Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) and the National Pensions...

New Retroactive Pension Payments for 37,000 in Greece

Anew round of retroactive pension payments is being implemented in Greece, targeting approximately 37,000 retirees, as the country’s main social security authority (e-EFKA) proceeds with gradual disbursements. The package concerns pending pension recalculations. Although pensions for these beneficiaries had already been recalculated, subsequent corrections and adjustments led to further increases. While the revised higher amounts were paid, the corresponding retroactive sums were not included at the time. These outstanding amounts will now be credited, covering the period from January 1,...

January 2026

Explaining Digital Payments Adoption with Econometrics and Explainable Machine Learning: Cross-Country Evidence from a Global Household Survey

By Saida Hajjaji This paper studies the determinants of individual adoption of digital payments using the Global Findex Database 2025, released by the World Bank and based on nationally representative household surveys conducted in 2024 across 141 economies. We combine a standard econometric approach with explainable machine learning (ML) methods in order to provide both transparent global benchmarks and granular, policy-relevant insights into digital payment behaviours. We first estimate a parsimonious logistic regression model on a broad multi-country sample of 5,189...

UK. Waspi chair says pension age fight is not over

Angela Madden was a full-time carer for her mother when she received a letter from the government in March 2012. It informed her she would not be eligible to receive a state pension for seven years, when she had expected to start receiving it in two. She is one of an estimated 3.6 million women born in the 1950s, who campaigners say were not properly informed of the rise in state pension age to bring them in line with men. And Angela,...

December 2025

Retirement by the Numbers: How participant behavior and glide path design can drive stronger retirement outcomes

By JPMorgan  How are participants interacting with their defined contribution retirement plans, and what are the implications for target date fund glide path design? For more than two decades, J.P. Morgan Asset Management has closely examined this question, analyzing real-world saving and spending patterns to provide actionable insights into how to help more people achieve the retirement they’ve earned. Retirement by the Numbers offers a unique view of how participants save, invest and spend throughout their working lives and retirement, leveraging...

November 2025

How America Retires: Turning complexity into clarity

By Vanguard This year, roughly 4.2 million people will turn age 65.* These individuals, collectively the so-called silver tsunami, are preparing to leave working life behind and enter a fulfilling and rewarding retirement. That’s exactly why we’ve created How America Retires, Vanguard’s new report that spotlights behavioral trends, insights, and plan design best practices to help today’s retirees make the life-changing transition from saving their money to spending it. Get the report here

Retirement reality: Managing money in mid-retirement

By Aviva People in their mid-70s overwhelmingly report that they want the security of an income for life, yet very few are confident that their savings will last. Many underestimate how long they need to budget for and tend not to engage with ongoing planning as they age. Modelling shows the risks of remaining in drawdown and the benefits of Flex First, Fix Later solutions that include later-life annuitisation as a way of addressing these challenges. Such an approach would...

September 2025

Australia. Analysis reveals benefit of lifetime income products

nvestment-linked lifetime income products can enhance retirement outcomes and sustainable regular income for Australian retirees, according to new research from Accurium. The findings of the research are significant, given that a central issue in retirement planning is longevity risk, or the fear of outliving savings, and demonstrate how investment-linked lifetime income products can help by providing income guaranteed for life that can grow with investment performance. It also found that these products improved access to the age pension, with modelling showing...