July 2025
17Jul

Vietnam updates insurance law with guidance on lump-sum payouts

It also clarifies the entitlement to retirement and survivorship benefits. Vietnam's Government has issued a decree to provide detailed guidance on several provisions of the Law on Social Insurance related to voluntary social insurance. The new decree, Decree 159/2025/ND-CP, took effect on 1 July, replacing Decree 134/2015/ND-CP. Key areas covered include contribution rules, benefit entitlements, and transitional provisions. Specifically, the decree outlines regulations for individuals who do not qualify for pensions or social allowances due to age or contribution conditions; sets...

July 17, 2025
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15Jul

Former Liberation Fighters in South Africa Decry Delays in Military Veterans Pension Payments

Former liberation soldiers are voicing their deep disappointment over the prolonged delays in receiving their military veterans pensions. These ex-fighters, who left their families to battle in foreign lands against apartheid, now find themselves in dire straits, begging for support from the very government they helped bring to power. At least 300 former combatants from the ANC’s Umkhonto we Sizwe, the PAC’s liberation army APLA, and AZANLA from Azapo, applied for their pensions in 2023 but have yet to...

July 15, 2025
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June 2025
25Jun

Kenya. Treasury fails to release Sh30 billion in pension payments- CoB

The delays come as the government struggles with a growing pension payout backlog, with the Treasury now under pressure to release Sh57.24 billion in June alone, having paid out Sh165.9 billion between July 2024 and May 2025, out of the total annual pension budget of Sh223.1 billion. Ongoing delays and repeated system downtimes have left retirees in financial uncertainty, with the Controller of Budget revealing that the Treasury failed to allocate Sh30.14 billion in processed pension payments in the nine...

June 25, 2025
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24Jun

South Korea plans end to lump-sum retirement payouts for workers

The South Korean government is pushing forward with a major overhaul of how workers receive retirement benefits, aiming to replace the longstanding lump-sum severance system with mandatory pension-style disbursements across all workplaces. The Ministry of Employment and Labor has proposed a five-phase plan that would require all employers—beginning with large corporations and eventually extending to the smallest businesses—to transition to the retirement pension system. Once fully implemented, workers would no longer be able to receive their retirement pay as a...

June 24, 2025
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May 2025
23May

Reforming pensions in Africa: Addressing coverage, payoutdisparities, and dementia outcomes for sustainable aging

By yprian M. Mostert, Catherine Ajalo & David Andai We appreciate the thoughtful feedback from scholars who suggest thatwe should have used life expectancy at age 45 or 25 to support ourargument for pension reforms in Africa. While life expectancy at thesespecific ages provides an average estimate of the remaining lifespan, itdoes not capture the nuances of individual survival probabilities, mak-ing it less reliable for certain analyses. This remains a debated topic inthe literature.1,2 Life expectancy at birth, on the...

May 23, 2025
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23May

UK. DWP identifies over 12,000 state pension HRP underpayments

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) identified 12,379 underpayments between 8 January 2024 and 31 March 2025, totalling around £104m in arrears for those affected by Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP) State Pension underpayments. According to the update, the average arrears paid was £8,377 between 8 January 2024 and 31 March 2025. In the same period, HMRC sent 370,018 letters. It also processed 8,639 applications under the state pension age and 44,296 applications over the state pension age. In total, the DWP...

May 23, 2025
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16May

Till Death Us do Part: Liquidity and the Annuity Puzzle

By Barbara Summers & Robert Hudson The annuity puzzle refers to the phenomenon that voluntary annuity take-up is typically much lower than predicted by mainstream economic models. Such models typically make strong assumptions regarding the risk and uncertainty facing individuals and neglect the role of liquidity. Often individuals are assumed to face only longevity risk or to have hedged all other risks in complete markets. In practice individuals need an element of liquidity in their portfolios to control the risks...

May 16, 2025
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February 2025
04Feb

Hong Kong. HSBC warning as thousands locked out of pensions with no access to savings

HSBC is refusing to transfer £978million in pension savings belonging to thousands of Hong Kong exiles who have fled to Britain. The FTSE 100 bank is withholding funds from tens of thousands of former Hong Kong residents who sought refuge in the UK following pro-democracy protests and the introduction of national security laws. The banking giant, which has its headquarters in London but maintains significant operations in China, claims legal barriers prevent it from releasing the pension funds to those who...

February 4, 2025
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January 2025
09Jan

Vietnam. Benefits of paying pensions and benefits without using cash

Thuan Duc Commune (Dong Hoi City, Quang Binh) became the first locality in Dong Hoi City to achieve 100% of pensioners and social insurance benefits receiving through bank accounts (ATM cards). In the middle of December 2024 month, with the last cases receiving pensions and social insurance benefits in cash switching to receiving them via e-commerce, Thuan Duc commune officially closed the list of social security payments via ATM cards at a rate of 100%. As one of the people on...

January 9, 2025
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December 2024
20Dec

Pensioners of Radio Pakistan in Gilgit-Baltistan demand overdue benefits

Last week, a determined group of retired employees from Radio Pakistan marched through the streets of Pakistan-occupied Gilgit-Baltistan (PoGB), voicing their frustrations over delayed retirement benefits and pensions that remain unpaid despite years of service. The demonstrators, a coalition of former staff who dedicated decades of their lives to the national broadcaster, gathered to demand immediate action from the government, shedding light on the financial hardships they currently face. Organised by a committed faction of people who have retired, the lively...

December 20, 2024
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