Breakdown in the Public Pension System: Not in the Name of Demography!

2016 ◽  
pp. 1-4
Author(s):  
Pau Miret ◽  
Pilar Zueras

In a Spain with full employment and less incapacity, dependence on the pension system would be less than half of what it is at present. For each dependent person there would be three contributors. Most experts say that the main threat to the stability of the pension system comes from demography. It is argued that population ageing would increase the ratio between pensioners and contributors, which would then make payment of pensions non-viable since there would not be enough working-age people to fund the rising pension pay-outs. However, less attention is paid to the fact that Spain presently enjoys robust demographic health since a large number of contributors is concentrated in the years of adulthood and the most productive period of working life, a fact which could be taken advantage of in order to fill the “piggy bank”. Yet despite this favourable demography, the pensions reserve fund is being depleted because of the economic recession. In this number of Perspectives Demogràfiques the extent of this demographic waste is demonstrated and the debate on pensions is taken beyond the framework of simply laying the blame on demography. First, we shall analyse the structure of the social security system, distinguishing between contributors, people receiving unemployment benefits, and pensioners in order to proceed with an exercise of simulation which will permit us to calculate what the ratio would be in a more rationalised economy.

Author(s):  
Clary Krekula ◽  
Lars-Gunnar Engström ◽  
Aida Alvinius

The Swedish government policy on extended working life has since its introduction in the mid-1990s aimed to lower the costs of the public pension system and to reduce the financial burden for workers. By focusing on an idealised category of those who are "willing and able to work longer", the policy has neglected the obstacles faced by those with physically demanding jobs or with a big responsibility to care for a close relative. This mainly affects women and upholds a neoliberal view of older people. By only problematizing gender perspective on the challenges to gender equality in working life, a narrow understanding of gender equality is created which deviates from other national gender equality policies. The policy debate thereby contributes also to excluding older women and men from the Swedish gender equality project. Despite the argument that an extended working life is needed to ensure the value of pensions, this does not apply to those who are unable to continue working - they are instead expected to rely on the social security scheme.


2015 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 701-722 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claes Belfrage

At the end of the Third Way and no sense of its future, social democrats look to Sweden for inspiration. However, Swedish social democracy is in no better condition. Scholarship is starting to grasp the broad outlines of the movement’s difficulties. Providing greater depth, this article employs the Social Systems of Innovation and Production approach to analyse Swedish social democracy’s current condition by historicising its current policy dilemmas in relation to the public pension system, once the jewel in the crown of the Rehn–Meidner model and the push for economic and industrial democracy, now the constraining legacy of financialisation.


2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Salvador Seguí-Cosme

<div><p>The Spanish post-crisis scenario of structural unemployment and job insecurity poses a new challenge to the public pension system: The trajectories of structurally precarious contributions, which carry the risk that future generations of retirees dispose of social protection levels considerably inferior to those of the current generations. The Spanish public pension system, already troubled by problems of sustainability, should be rethought in the context of a redefinition of the social security subsystem linked to the labor market.</p></div>


Kuntoutus ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 6-20
Author(s):  
Hanna Rinne ◽  
Jenni Blomgren

Tieto kuntoutuksen kentän kokonaisuudesta ja erilaisten kuntoutuspalveluiden käytöstä samoilla ihmisillä on varsin hajanaista ja puutteellista. Tutkimuksen tavoitteena on selvittää kuntoutukseen osallistumisen yleisyyttä ja päällekkäisyyttä eri osajärjestelmissä Oulun asukkailla vuonna 2018 laajalla rekisteriaineistolla (N = 192 844). Tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan julkisen sosiaali- ja terveyspalvelujärjestelmän kuntoutusta, Kelan kuntoutusta, työeläkekuntoutusta, työterveyshuollon fysioterapiaa ja Kelan korvaamaa yksityistä fysioterapiaa. Vuonna 2018 oululaisista 18 prosenttia sai vähintään yhden tutkitun osajärjestelmän kuntoutusta (N = 34 061). Yleisintä oli julkisen sosiaali- ja terveyspalvelujärjestelmän kuntoutus, harvinaisinta työeläkekuntoutus. Naiset osallistuivat kuntoutukseen miehiä yleisemmin. Kuntoutukseen osallistuminen oli miehillä yleisintä 65 vuotta täyttäneillä, naisilla 45–64-vuotiailla. Harvinaisinta se oli 16–24-vuotiailla miehillä ja alle 16-vuotiailla naisilla. Suurin osa (90 %) kuntoutukseen osallistuneista oli osallistunut vain yhden osajärjestelmän kuntoutukseen. Useamman osajärjestelmän kuntoutukseen osallistuminen oli naisilla miehiä yleisempää. Ikäryhmistä se oli yleisintä 45–64-vuotiailla ja harvinaisinta alle 16-vuotiailla. Vähintään kahden osajärjestelmän kuntoutukseen osallistuneet olivat keskimäärin vanhempia kuin vain yhden osajärjestelmän kuntoutukseen osallistuneet ja myös naisten osuus oli heillä suurempi. Rekisteritietoja kuntoutuksesta on hankala koota kattavasti, sillä järjestelmä on hyvin hajanainen ja toimijoita ja rekisterinpitäjiä on lukuisia. Myös kuntoutuksen määrittely aineistoista osoittautui vaikeaksi. Yhtenäiset tietojärjestelmät kuntoutuksesta palvelisivat paitsi tutkijoita, myös kuntoutujia. Abstract Prevalence and overlap of participation in rehabilitation in different subsystems – a register-based study among residents of the city of Oulu, Finland, in 2018 Knowledge of the whole spectrum of rehabilitation and of the use of different rehabilitation services by the same individuals is quite fragmented and incomplete. The aim of this study is to examine the prevalence and overlap of participation in rehabilitation in different subsystems among residents of the city of Oulu, Finland, in 2018 using extensive register-based data (N=192,844). The study examines rehabilitation organized by the public social and health care system, by the Social Insurance Institution of Finland, by the earnings-related pension system, as well as physiotherapy in occupational health care and private physiotherapy reimbursed by the Social Insurance Institution of Finland. In 2018, 18 per cent of the residents of Oulu received rehabilitation of at least one of the examined subsystems (N=34,061). Receiving rehabilitation of public social and health care was the most common; the rarest was rehabilitation within the earnings-related pension system. Women participated in rehabilitation more often than men. Using rehabilitation services was most common in men aged 65 and over, and in women aged 45–64. It was least common in men aged 16–24 years and in women under 16 years of age. The majority (90%) of those who participated in rehabilitation had participated in rehabilitation of only one subsystem. Participation in rehabilitation of several subsystems was more common in women than in men. It was most common in those aged 45–64 years and least common in those under 16 years of age. Those who received rehabilitation of at least two subsystems were, on average, older than those who received rehabilitation of only one subsystem, and more often women. It is difficult to compile comprehensive register data on rehabilitation, as the system is very fragmented and there are many organizers and registrars. Defining rehabilitation from the data also proved difficult. Unified information systems on rehabilitation would serve not only researchers but also rehabilitees. Keywords: rehabilitation, register-based research, Finland


2010 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
Friedrich Breyer ◽  
Stefan Hupfeld

Abstract A crucial parameter for increasing the retirement age is the early retirement discount of the public pension system. Critics of the present German system argue that the downward adjustment of the pension for early retirees is too small compared with a ‘fair’ system and thus encourages early retirement. We discuss several notions of ‘fairness’ of early-retirement provisions and propose a concept called ‘distributive neutrality’, which states that the ratio between total benefits and total contributions should not depend systematically on the individual’s ability. By applying this concept to the German retirement benefit formula and taking empirically estimated relationships between annual income (as a proxy for ability), life expectancy and retirement age into account, we show that at the present discount rate of 3.6% per year there is redistribution from low to high earners, which, surprisingly, could be attenuated by raising the discount rate.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 90-103
Author(s):  
Maria-Cristina Bălăneasa ◽  
Cătălina Dogotari

The current importance of public pensions is given by the fact that this is the main form of support for inactive or unemployed people.Through this article we aim to review, in a brief way, the evolution and particularities of public pension.In particular, we want to analyze the evolution of the number of retirees in the public system, of the average pension but also of the service pensions during the years 2010-2021, in order to identify some directions for improving the public pension system.


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