September 2025
10Sep

Ghana. Retired Officials Face Scrutiny Over Dual Salary Entitlements

Ghana grapples with constitutional questions as debate intensifies over whether retired public officers should receive full compensation when appointed to new positions, potentially earning combined monthly payments exceeding ₵115,000. The controversy centers on retired Chief Justices who collect ₵65,000 monthly pensions while earning ₵50,000 as Council of State members, creating what critics call an unsustainable fiscal burden during economic uncertainty. U.S.-based legal scholar Professor Stephen Kwaku Asare has emerged as a prominent voice challenging the practice. The academic has questioned why...

September 10, 2025
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03Sep

US. Public Pension Fund Returns Beat Their Benchmarks

U.S. public pension funds’ returns were well beyond their targets for the third consecutive year, reporting a median investment return of 11.3% for the fiscal year ended June 30, according to investment consulting firm Callan. All of the major asset classes reported gains for the year ending June 30, 2025. The plans’ returns, which left their average assumed rate of return of 7.0% in the dust by 430 basis points, were led by foreign equities and domestic equities, which gained 17.7%...

September 3, 2025
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August 2025
21Aug

Treasury Outlines Plan to Pay Retirement Benefits to Former Kenya Railways Staff

National Treasury Cabinet Secretary, John Mbadi, has revealed how the government plans to pay the retirement benefits owed to former Kenya Railways staff. Appearing before the Labour and Social Welfare Committee on Wednesday, August 20, Mbadi revealed that the government had a plan set in place to pay the money owed to the Kenya Railways Staff Retirement Benefit Scheme (KRSRBS). The CS claimed that the delayed payments had been caused by the fact that the scheme did not have any monetary...

August 21, 2025
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July 2025
25Jul

Unintended Consequences: How Scaling Back Public Pensions Puts Government Revenues at Risk

By National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems The argument that taxpayers cannot afford public pensions has gained traction despite a woeful lack of empirical evidence to support it. Legislators across the nation are contemplating options for the future funding of public-sector worker retirement benefits at a time when competition for finite state and local resources is fierce. The reasons are familiar: the lingering effects of recession and misguided budget priorities have taken a toll. Time and again, defined-benefit pensions...

July 25, 2025
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25Jul

US. NCPERS Warns of Risks From Dismantling Public Pensions

In its 2025 update of its 2018 report, “Unintended Consequences: How Scaling Back Public Pensions Puts Government Revenues at Risk,” the National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems found that public pensions produced $445.2 billion more in state and local revenues than taxpayers contributed in 2023. According to the update, state and local public pensions are a “powerful economic engine,” generating more than $660 billion and contributing nearly $3 trillion in economic output in 2023. While policymakers grapple with decisions...

July 25, 2025
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04Jul

US. Asset Gains for 100 Largest Public Pensions Surge $98B in May; PRT Costs Decline

The 100 largest public defined benefit plans in the U.S. raked in $98 billion in asset gains during May thanks to a 2.4% investment gain during the month, according to Milliman’s Public Pension Funding Index. It was the funds’ best monthly market performance in more than a year. The consulting and actuarial firm said the strong gains boosted their estimated funded level to 81.1% from 79.6% a month earlier. It also said that the deficit between the estimated plan assets and liabilities...

July 4, 2025
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June 2025
02Jun

US. Milliman analysis: Public pension funding stable in April after plans end volatile month with slight market gain

Milliman, Inc., a premier global consulting and actuarial firm, today released the latest results of its Public Pension Funding Index (PPFI), which analyzes data from the nation’s 100 largest public defined benefit plans. Despite April market swings caused by trade and tariff uncertainty, the Milliman 100 PPFI plans closed the month with estimated investment gains of 0.4% in aggregate. Individual plans’ estimated returns ranged from -1.8% to 1.4%. Combined, the plans added about $24 billion in market value during the...

June 2, 2025
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May 2025
26May

Why a retirement age of 70 is a bad idea, according to science

If you are counting the years until you can retire, then don’t move to Denmark. The country has just passed a law nudging the official retirement age up to 70, which will take effect in 2040, for people born in 1971 or later. But Denmark is not the only place with this idea. The UK state pension age used to be 60 for women and 65 for men. It is currently 66 for everyone, but it will increase – in stages – up...

May 26, 2025
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23May

US. House passes reconciliation bill that cuts federal employee retirement benefits

The House voted 215-214 along party lines early Thursday morning to pass its budget reconciliation package that includes a slimmer range proposed cuts to federal workers’ retirement benefits. The bill now heads to the Senate for consideration. Last month, the House Oversight and Reform Committee advanced its portion of the bill, which would cut federal spending to partially pay for tax cuts for the wealthy and increased immigration enforcement. The measure included provisions requiring employees previously exempted from higher Federal Employees...

May 23, 2025
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20May

Jamaica. Senate Passes Legislation to Grant Certain Public Officers Option of Retiring Before Age 65

The Senate has passed legislation granting public officers born between August 1, 1961 and February 28, 1963, the option of retiring before reaching age 65 while still receiving full benefits. Minister of Education, Skills, Youth and Information, Senator Dr. the Hon. Dana Morris Dixon, piloted the Pensions (Public Service) (Amendment and Validation) Act 2025 through the Upper House on Friday (May 16). The Bill seeks to validate and confirm, as lawful, all the actions and omissions made by any person in...

May 20, 2025
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