March 2023

Chinese cities are so broke, they’re cutting medical benefits for seniors

China's government, strapped for cash after years of enforcing a costly zero-Covid policy, is cutting medical benefits and planning to raise the retirement age, in deeply unpopular moves that are fueling widespread public anger. Thousands of elderly people have been taking to the streets since January to protest big cuts to monthly medical benefit payments. They've gathered in four major cities across the country, demanding local officials reverse the decisions. The changes are part of a national overhaul mainly intended to...

Czechs protest government bid to raise retirement age

Czech labor unions on Wednesday joined with opposition parties to protest the government's proposed bid to raise the retirement age by four years to 68. Some 2,000 protesters gathered Wednesday in front of government offices in the capital Prague to voice their opposition to the plan. “We definitely don't agree,” read a letter ratified at the gathering. “We will defend ourselves,” Roman Durco, the head of the KOVO labor union group that organized the rally told the angry crowd. Labor and Social...

UK. Ministers reportedly scrap plan to bring forward rise in UK state pension age

Ministers have reportedly delayed plans to bring forward a rise in the state pension age amid falling life expectancy in the UK. The state pension age, which is currently 66, was due to rise to 68 after 2044 but reports earlier this year suggested ministers had planned to bring the increase forward to between 2037 and 2039. However, the Financial Times has reported ministers have decided to delay making a decision until after the next general election because of fears about...

France’s government survives no-confidence votes as pension reforms move ahead

Parliament adopted a divisive pension bill Monday raising the retirement age in France from 62 to 64, after lawmakers in the lower chamber rejected two no-confidence votes against the government. But the bill pushed through by President Emmanuel Macron without lawmakers' approval still faces a review by the Constitutional Council before it can be signed into law. The council has the power to reject articles within bills but usually approves them. The first no-confidence motion, proposed by a small centrist group...

Pension Tax Limits

By Gov.UK Individual members of registered pension schemes who make annual pension contributions over the standard annual allowance (AA), money purchase annual allowance (MPAA), or tapered annual allowance (tapered AA), and who therefore expect to become subject to an AA charge. Individual members of registered pension schemes who already have or expect to have pension savings exceeding either the standard lifetime allowance (LTA) or their protected LTA, and who therefore expect to become subject to an LTA charge. Scheme administrators of registered pension schemes who will need to...

The Health-Consumption Effects of Increasing Retirement Age Late in the Game

By Eve Caroli, Catherine Pollak & Muriel Roger Using the differentiated increase in retirement age across cohorts introduced by the 2010 French pension reform, we estimate the health-consumption effects of a 4-month increase in retirement age. We focus on individuals who were close to retirement age but not retired yet by the time the reform was passed. Using administrative data on individual sick-leave claims and non-hospital health-care expenses, we show that the probability of having at least one sickness absence...

Macron puts his government at risk with decision to raise the retirement age in France

French President Emmanuel Macron imposed a highly unpopular bill raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 on Thursday by shunning parliament and invoking a special constitutional power. Lawmakers were shouting, their voices shaking with emotion as Macron made the risky move, which is expected to trigger quick motions of no-confidence in his government. Riot police vans zoomed by outside the National Assembly, their sirens wailing. The proposed pension changes have prompted major strikes and protests across the country since January....

UK abolishes tax threshold on pension allowance to encourage people to work longer

British finance minister Jeremy Hunt on Wednesday said he would abolish the tax thresholds high earners face when they invest in pensions, in a bid to encourage them to keep working and reduce the number of people taking early retirement. Hunt said in his annual budget that he would scrap the so-called lifetime allowance, which had meant that people faced a 25% levy if they saved around 1.1 million pounds ($1.33 million)in their pension pots. The capped amount of money that...

China to raise retirement age to deal with aging population – media

China is planning to raise its retirement age gradually and in phases to cope with the country's rapidly aging population, the state-backed Global Times said on Tuesday, citing a senior expert from China's Ministry of Human Resources. Jin Weigang, president of the Chinese Academy of Labor and Social Security Sciences, said China was eyeing a "progressive, flexible and differentiated path to raising the retirement age", meaning that it would be delayed initially by a few months, which would be subsequently...

GOP lawmaker says US should consider raising retirement age for future Social Security beneficiaries

Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina said Sunday that raising the retirement age for future Social Security beneficiaries should be “on the table” as long as it doesn’t affect “anybody that’s heading into retirement right now.” “I think that’s something that has to be on the table, we have to look at,” Mace told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on “State of the Union” when asked about Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley’s call for a higher retirement age for Americans who...