scholarly journals Lifetime Earnings, Mortality, And Social Security Benefits: Implications For Reform

2011 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan D. Eastman ◽  
Kevin L. Eastman

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">The Social Security system is facing significant financial challenges, but politicians, economists, and other experts cannot agree on appropriate solutions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Raising taxes and/or cutting benefits are never popular proposals, and competing groups want to protect the poor while at the same time maintain fairness for the more wealthy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Recent studies, such as Cristia (2007), Duggan et al. (2007), and Waldron (2007), have shown a strong correlation between lifetime earnings and mortality, suggesting that differences in life expectancy between the wealthy and the less wealthy may be getting larger, thus eroding the progressivity of the Social Security system.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Our results show that for a mortality difference of one or two years, benefit reductions in the range of 2.5% to 16% would be needed to maintain the current level of progressivity for a male living to age 80.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>If the mortality difference grows to four or five years, the benefit reductions would need to be much greater, anywhere from approximately 14% to 31%.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>A reduction in benefits based on lifetime earnings can improve the long-run viability of the Social Security system while maintaining its current level of progressivity.</span></span></p>

2008 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-151
Author(s):  
JONATHAN A. SCHWABISH ◽  
JULIE H. TOPOLESKI

SUMMARYProposed changes to the Social Security system will affect the financial risk workers will face in their retirement differently across the income distribution. This study examines levels of financial risk workers face at different points in the lifetime earnings distribution. To do so, we use a microsimulation model that projects individual demographic and economic characteristics within the context of the Social Security system and the macroeconomy to assess the impact of two policy changes on the levels of lifetime benefits available to current and future retirees. Further, we incorporate data on pensions and savings to illustrate differences in the level and distribution of retirement funds across the earnings distribution. This exercise allows us to assess the financial risk workers face in their retirement, both within the Social Security system itself and within a broader view of the stream of total available retirement funds. We also use survey data to show that low earners are the least willing to tolerate such risk.


2018 ◽  
Vol 54 ◽  
pp. 03019
Author(s):  
Tedi Sudrajat ◽  
Siti Kunarti ◽  
Abdul Aziz Nasihuddin

The Social Security System in Indonesia has been regulated by the government, and the program is managed by an agency called Social Insurance Administration Organization (BPJS). Associated with the existence of social security functions for workers, its practice presents a gap between what is expected and what is regulated. For this reason, it is therefore necessary to examine, firstly, what kind of legal protection of workers is covered by this national social security system managed in BPJS program and, secondly, what constraints are encountered in its implementation. This research is Juridical Normative one, with normative qualitative data analysis. The research finds that the social security is correlated not only with the welfare of employees who are assessed by the level of wages provided by the organization, rather it is also correlated with other factors in the form of health and safety assurance. In the broader context, social welfare is measured not only when the person is at work and gets social security benefits, rather the measure of his welfare is also applicable when the worker is not working and/or when they retire. On the basis of these, the social security program is an integral aspect of social security to which the government should give a legal protection.


2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (S1) ◽  
pp. 121-122
Author(s):  
Simone Russo ◽  
Raffaele Migliorini ◽  
Marco Trabucco ◽  
Francesco Saverio Mennini

Introduction:The purpose of the study is to estimate both the number of beneficiaries and the burden of the Disability Insurance (DI) benefits provided for neoplastic diseases (ND) and for five cancer types, focusing on the expenditure by the social security system.Methods:To estimate the current DI benefits and their cost, we analyzed the databases of DI awards and the mean cost per benefit of the Italian National Social Security Institute (INPS) for two types of social security benefits: the disability benefits (DB) for people with reduced work ability and the incapacity pensions (IP) for people without work ability. A probabilistic model with a Monte Carlo simulation was developed in order to estimate the total benefits provided and costs.Results:Between 2009 and 2015, a yearly average was estimated of about 122,000 beneficiaries of DI for cancer. The total estimated expenditure for ND in the seven years, supported and provided by INPS for these social security benefits, amounted to EUR 8.1 billion (corresponding to 27.4 percent of the total expenditure for disability provided by INPS) of which 66.7 percent was associated with DB and the remaining 33.3 percent with IP. The percentage increase related to the costs show that DB have the most significant increase starting from the 2013 with 11.3 percent from 2013 to 2014 and 9.7 percent from 2014 to 2015, while. IP have an increase from 2009 to 2011, with a maximum during 2011, with a percentage difference of 7.6 percent.Conclusions:The incidence and the prevalence of the ND are expected to increase in the coming years in Italy. In order to minimize the consequences of this scenario, rapid access to innovative treatments would reduce the costs borne by the social security system, accompanied by an improvement in the effectiveness of interventions and increase in quality of life for patients.


1989 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 626-627 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel S. Allen ◽  
Renate West

A leader in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) last year (Marks, 1988) suggested that the uptake of social security benefits among mentally ill people is low. However, this statement was based on the only data the writer could find – a study of 37 patients conducted in Islington based on the old social security system, prior to April 1988 (Linney & Boswell, 1987). Two weeks later, another BMJ leader (Marcovitch, 1988) bemoaned the fact that insufficient research had been conducted on the impact of changes in the social security system.


Author(s):  
David Besanko ◽  
Saahil Malik

In May 2009 the Office of the Chief Actuary for the U.S. Social Security Administration projected that by 2016 the Social Security Trust Fund would begin to spend more money than it took in through tax revenue. Further, by 2037 the balance in the Trust Fund would be down to zero, necessitating cuts in benefits to retirees. The U.S. Social Security system thus faced a long-term financial problem that needed to be addressed sooner rather than later. The experience of other countries in reforming their own systems of old-age insurance might provide some guidance for U.S. policymakers as they attempt to deal with the long-run fiscal challenges facing the U.S. Social Security system. This case focuses on reforms of old-age insurance systems in three countries: Australia, Mexico, and Sweden.This case gives students the opportunity to debate the variety of approaches that could be used to reform the U.S. Social Security system. It also gives insight into how countries around the world have structured their old-age insurance systems.


Author(s):  
Liviu Dinu ◽  
Lisa Scullion

The arrival of large numbers of Central and Eastern European migrants to the UK has been met with political and public debate around the perceived impacts on indigenous labour market opportunities coupled with fears about the demands placed on the welfare system. Within this broader migration, the arrival of Roma has triggered particularly prejudicial reactions. However, little is known about how Roma experience the social security system within the UK, particularly within a situation of increasingly conditional rights for European migrants. This chapter begins by highlighting some of the pervasive narratives in relation to Roma that focus on their supposed disproportionate representation within benefits systems and the subsequent responses of Member States to such (mis)representations. Drawing upon interviews with Roma migrants claiming social security benefits in the UK, the chapter then provides insights into how they respond to the conditionality inherent within the UK social security system. The chapter highlights that, contrary to pervasive narratives, claiming benefits appears to be a last resort after multiple job search attempts. Furthermore, welfare conditionality has the potential to lead Roma to disengage with the benefits system altogether and seek informal employment in order to meet their basic needs.


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