Fair Cuts? The Impact of British Public Service Pension Reform on Workers in the Main Occupations

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-122
Author(s):  
Paul Bridgen ◽  
Traute Meyer
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Pension System ◽  
Pension Reform ◽  
Average Salary ◽  
Reform Initiatives ◽  
Working Lives ◽  
Recent Reform ◽  
Post War ◽  
The Impact

Public service pensions have been a fundamental component of the British pension system in the post-war period and recent reform initiatives have caused political controversy. This article assesses the impact of the Conservative/Liberal government's public sector pension reform plans of 2011 for different public sector workers. It simulates their projected pension outcomes, assuming people contribute to the new system throughout their working lives. In particular, we examine the government's claim that the move away from final to average salary schemes will make pensions fairer for women and lower paid workers. The article shows that the reforms are indeed fair, if measured by the government's standards: retirement is delayed for all, but the lowest skilled and women lose least and some even gain higher pensions without paying proportionately more. Despite austerity, recent British pension reforms reflect a greater awareness of social inequality than many would expect and they have been built on more cross-party agreement than apparent at first sight.

Pandemic effects on public service employment in Australia

2021 ◽  
pp. 103530462110560
Author(s):  
Linda Colley ◽  
Shelley Woods ◽  
Brian Head
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Public Management ◽  
Public Services ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Considerable Change ◽  
Employment Relations ◽  
Public Servants ◽  
Public Sector Employment ◽  
The Impact

The COVID-19 pandemic is sending shockwaves through communities and economies, and public servants have risen to the novel policy challenges in uncharted waters. This crisis comes on top of considerable turmoil for public services in recent decades, with public management reforms followed by the global financial crisis (GFC) leading to considerable change to public sector employment relations and a deprivileging of public servants. The research adopts the lens of the ‘public service bargain’ to examine the effects of the pandemic across Australian public services. How did Australian public service jurisdictions approach public employment in 2020, across senior and other cohorts of employees? How did this pandemic response compare to each jurisdictions’ response to the GFC a decade earlier? The research also reflects more broadly of the impact on public sector employment relations and to what extent pandemic responses have altered concepts of the diminished public service bargain or the notion of governments as model employers? JEL Codes J45

scholarly journals You Win Some, You Lose Some: Pension Reform in Bachelet’s First and Second Administrations

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 204-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvia Borzutzky
Keyword(s):  
Political Ideology ◽  
Pension System ◽  
Pension Reform ◽  
Presidential Power ◽  
Pension Policy ◽  
The Will ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Government Coalition

This article analyses and compares President Bachelet’s successful efforts to reform the Chilean pension system in 2008 and her failure to achieve the same objective in 2017. The article addresses the impact of electoral promises, policy legacies, policy ideology, presidential power, the role of the private sector, and the role that the government coalitions had in the process of pension reform during the Bachelet administrations. We argue that the 2008 reform was possible because of Bachelet’s personal commitment to reform and the presence of a stable governing coalition that had the will and capacity to legislate. In the second administration, although the policy legacies and ideology had remained the same, the reform did not materialise due to intense conflict within the administration and within the government coalition, as well as conflict between the administration and the coalition. These conflicts, in turn, generated a vicious cycle responsible for Bachelet’s declining popularity, limited political capital, and reduced support for reform. A stagnant economy further undermined these efforts. In brief, this article argues that when assessing success and failure in pension policy reform it is important to analyse not only policy legacies and political ideology but also the strength of the executive, the cohesion of the governing coalition, and the country’s economic performance.

scholarly journals All precarious? Institutional change and turning points in labour market trajectories in Spain

2017 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 408-422 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martí López Andreu
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Career Paths ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Employment Protection ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Working Lives ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Work And Employment

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of changes in employment regulation in Spain on individual labour market trajectories. It is well known that the Spanish labour market has been strongly hit by the 2007 recession. Furthermore, after 2010 and in the benchmark of “austerity”, several reforms were implemented to further flexibilise employment regulation. At the same time, public sector budgets suffered severe cutbacks, that impacted working conditions and prospects of public sector workers. These reforms were implemented by different governments and substantially changed previous existing patterns of employment. This paper explains how these reforms have reinforced previous existing trends towards greater flexibility and weaker employment protection and how they lead to a shift in the position of work in society. Design/methodology/approach The emerging patterns that these changes provoked are illustrated thorough data from narrative biographies of workers affected by a job loss or a downgrading of working conditions. The workers of the sample had relatively stable positions and careers and were affected by changes that substantially modified their paths. Findings The paper shows how reforms have expanded work and employment insecurities and have broken career paths. It demonstrates how the reforms have weakened the position of work and organised labour in society and how, when institutional supports are jeopardised, the capacity to plan and act is harassed by the traditional social inequalities. Originality/value The paper enhances the knowledge about the impact of institutional changes by analysing their effects in individual working lives by means of narrative biographies.

scholarly journals Informality and the Challenge of Pension Adequacy

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (149) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Christoph Freudenberg ◽  
Frederik Toscani
Keyword(s):  
Pension System ◽  
Pension Reform ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Defined Benefit ◽  
Defined Contribution ◽  
Real Rate ◽  
Labor Market Reform ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Term Labor ◽  
Pension Adequacy

Past reforms have put the Peruvian pension system on a largely fiscally sustainable path, but the system faces important challenges in providing adequate pension levels for a large share of the population. Using administrative microdata at the affiliate level, we project replacement rates in the defined benefit (DB) and defined contribution (DC) pillars over the next 30 years and simulate the impact of various reform scenarios on the average level and distribution of pensions. In the DB pillar, the regressive minimum contribution period should be re-thought, while in the DC pillar a broadening of the contribution base and/or an increase in contribution rates would help increase replacement rates relative to the baseline forecast of 25-33 percent. A higher net real rate of return than assumed in the baseline would also have a significant positive impact. In the medium-term, labor market reform to tackle informality, and a broad pension reform to restructure the system and avoid competition between the DB and DC pillars should be a priority. Given low pension coverage, having a strong non-contributory pillar will remain important for the foreseeable future.

scholarly journals How the Pension System Responds to Pandemic Shocks: A Case Study of Georgia

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maka Ghaniashvili
Keyword(s):  
Life Expectancy ◽  
Pension System ◽  
Pension Reform ◽  
Age Distribution ◽  
Financial Strain ◽  
Significant Step ◽  
Pros And Cons ◽  
Pension Benefits ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Fiscal Risks

The paper focuses on the impact of the pandemic crisis on pension system in Georgia and analyzes the pros and cons of the ongoing pension reforms in the country. Decreased birth rates and increased life expectancy over the next decades will significantly change the picture of the age distribution of the population in many countries. As life expectancy increases and the birth rate decreases, more people retire than are added to the workforce. A change in the demographic picture necessitates fundamental pension reform. At the same time, the world is facing a crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The future is uncertain, both medically and financially. Despite optimistic forecasts, the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic has begun in many countries which further increases the degree of uncertainty. Funded pension schemes suffer from the crisis because lower returns diminish their asset values, while low yields on public debt instruments increase the present value of their liabilities. This can generate both explicit fiscal risks— in the case of government guarantees—and implicit fiscal risks through lower private pension benefits or financial strain on the sponsoring employers. Our research is focused on the pension system and its development problems in Georgia, taking into account that since 2019, 1st January, the existing financial, demographic and economic challenges have determined the establishment of a new pension system. Main sources for the research are data gathered from the international organizations and local governmental and statistical data softwares. Our research results show that the pension reform launched in 2019 in Georgia is a significant step forward in reducing social imbalances and fiscal pressures in the medium / long term. However, for further development, it is important to systematically assess the effectiveness of pension policies, taking into account factors such as changes in demographic structure, expected fiscal spending, the inequality gap and the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

scholarly journals Government matters more than ever: Toward respect for government in an increasingly privatized world

2006 ◽  
Vol 1 (3/4) ◽  
pp. 189
Author(s):  
Mary R. Hamilton
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Complex World ◽  
World Government ◽  
The Impact

This article argues that, in our raplidly changing, increasingly complex world, government matters. It always has and arguably now matters more than ever largely because of the context within we live - a context in which more than two decades of government bashing have taken their toll on pride and capacity in public service, leaving an emasucilated public sector to deal with the immense challeges of today's world. To make this argument the historical shifts of perspective on government and the marketplace are described along with the changes occuring so rapidly in our world. Second, the impact of the recent shift to a pro-marketplace bias and the impacts of globalization, interdependence and increased tribalism on governments and on public administration are described. Finally, some key challenges facing public administration as a result of these changes are discussed.  

Guaranteeing the Programming Mandate of Public Broadcasters and Restraints on Private Broadcasters’ Programmes in Multimedia Conditions

2004 ◽  
Vol 5 (8) ◽  
pp. 907-933 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karl-Heinz Ladeur
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Service Networks ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Service Broadcasting ◽  
Regulatory Strategy ◽  
Post War ◽  
Societal Dynamics

The present German media structures are subject to a fundamental process of self-transformation due to technological as well as societal dynamics. This is especially the case for public service broadcasting. In the post-war era, the public service networks were one of the central intermediary institutions of organized pluralism, serving both the state and society at large. It is not only the growing competition between public and private broadcasters that has led to dramatic changes to the role of public sector broadcasters. The public sector is also being challenged by the rise of the entertainment economy and a shift in focus from public to private affairs. This paper describes the hitherto established role of public service broadcasting and its present crisis. The paper then proposes a proactive legal and political regulatory strategy, which might help find a new role for public broadcasters in a much more fragmented society. The proposed strategy follows the paradigm of proceduralization, which is also prevailing in many other parts of the institutional structures of postmodern society.

Higher Public Service Motivation for Accepting Public Sector Pension Reform? Evidence from Korean Government Organizations

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-42
Author(s):  
Kim Yunho ◽  
Jung Yunjin ◽  
Seoh Dongwook ◽  
Im Tobin
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Pension Reform ◽  
Public Service Motivation ◽  
Organizational Changes ◽  
Government Employees ◽  
Public Servants ◽  
Government Organizations ◽  
The Relationship

Organizational reforms that employees do not voluntary accept are likely to negatively affect organizational effectiveness in the long term. We conducted an empirical analysis with survey data by reviewing related studies on public service motivation (PSM) and acceptance of organizational changes, the goal being to verify the relationship between government employees’ PSMand their acceptance of public sector pension reform in Korea. Results show that public servants highly driven by PSM are willing to accept this pension reform even though it reduces their own benefits. This study is distinguished from existing literature of PSM and responses to organizational changes because it reduces the possibility of endogeneity problems.

scholarly journals The Sustainability Factor: How Much Do Pension Expenditures Improve in Spain?

Risks ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 134
Author(s):  
Enrique Devesa ◽  
Mar Devesa ◽  
Inmaculada Dominguez-Fabián ◽  
Borja Encinas ◽  
Robert Meneu
Keyword(s):  
Projection Method ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Pension System ◽  
Aggregate Data ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Working Lives ◽  
Annual Expenditure ◽  
To Come ◽  
The Impact

The reform of 2013 represented a qualitative leap in the reform of the Spanish pension system. Unlike its predecessors, it introduced two automatic resetting mechanisms similar to those of other European countries. The first is the sustainability factor, scheduled to come into effect in 2019 but delayed until 2023, and its ultimate reversal cannot be ruled out. The objective of this study was to quantify the savings, or the lowest expenditure, that can be achieved in the Spanish public contributory pension system by applying it. These savings are measured in terms of cash—of annual expenditure—and in terms of accrual by calculating its present actuarial value. Combining these two methods is one of the contributions of this work. This work was only intended to analyze the impact of the Sustainability Factor, therefore, it did not take into account the impact of the Pension Revaluation Index, which is the second mechanism introduced in the reform of the pension to 2013. An ad hoc projection method was used, combining microdata from the Continuous Sample of Working Lives (MCVL), aggregate data from the pension system, the financial-actuarial projection method, and actuarial techniques. The diversity of the data used is the second contribution of this work. The application of the sustainability factor would improve the viability of the system, since the savings that could be achieved, measured in terms of GDP for each year, would be 1.029% by 2050; 1.094% in 2057, the maximum; and 1.026% in the last year of projection. In terms of the present actuarial value and as a function of annual GDP, in 2050, the savings would be 1.27%, 1.40% in 2044, the maximum, and in 2067 it would decrease to 0.98%.

scholarly journals Impact Of Retirement Benefit Act (RBA) On Investment Returns To Pension Funds In Kenya

2010 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucy Jepchoge Rono ◽  
Julius Kibet Bitok ◽  
Gordon N Asamoah
Keyword(s):  
Pension System ◽  
Pension Reform ◽  
Pension Funds ◽  
Insurance Fund ◽  
Retirement Benefits ◽  
Fund Managers ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Investment Returns ◽  
Mean Differences ◽  
The Impact

This study focused on the analysis of the impact of RBA guidelines on the return on investments of both pension funds under management and those for pension schemes. A random sample of 175 fund trustees and a census of 13 fund managers from registered fund management companies participated in the survey. The questionnaire was administered through the drop-and-pick method. Data were analyzed using SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) and summarized in descriptive statistics, such as mean, standard deviation, frequencies, percentages, and t-tests for mean differences were used. The study determined that annual investment return for retirement benefits schemes in the past three years ranged between 10 and 27.52%, sometimes falling below the annual inflation.  The Kenya pension funds are in compliance with the prescribed broad guidelines with regard to maximum percentages of total asset value of fund by the RBA Act. They are, however, moderately in compliance with the regulations requiring that that they maintain an actuarial solvency of 80% and above. The overall weighted returns before the implementation of RBA Guidelines was low (average scale of 1.9) while the weighted returns after the implementation of RBA Guidelines was high, at an average scale of 3.7. An analysis of the trend, however, showed that long-run performance has slowed down. The highest growth was realized for mortgage and cash returns as opposed to rights issues and bonus shares. There is need to fashion out the appropriate mix of reforms suitable for Kenya that will ensure the long-run sustainability of its pension systems. The challenge is for the country to adopt a unified, harmonized, and transparent regulatory framework that will integrate the pension system in order to ensure sustainability in its financing and mobilizing of adequate funds to cater for the ever-increasing population of beneficiaries in this regard, comprehensive pension reform policy with wider target radar and one that will consolidate and harmonize the various legislations touching on retirement benefits industry in line with Retirement Benefits Act. The Regulator needs to implement measures to ensure pension funds are insulated from inflationary and other risks.  An effective way is to institute a pension risk insurance fund that will underwrite and compensate such losses as will be prescribed. Further, there is need for a systematic indexation of benefits to inflation. RBA should strengthen its compliance and enforcement function in order to ensure that it appropriately deals with emerging present and future regulatory challenges.

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