Title:	Securing Pension Provision: The Challenge of Reforming the Age of Entitlement
Authors:	Catherine Blair
Keywords:	Securing Pension
Issue Date:	2014
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan
Description:	Raising the pensionable age is an unpopular and straightforward change that cannot be easily camouflaged. The Introduction asks why some countries have nonetheless been able to increase the age of entitlement for state pensions: we observe some convergence, with an increasing number of countries undertaking these reforms, whilst there is also divergence regarding the extent and content of the reforms. The Introduction defines the research question: How did certain countries increase their state pension age? The aim is to establish whether we can identify cross-country patterns and trends in the formation and content of state pension age (and equivalent) reforms. The Introduction also argues that the answer will only be found in the triggers and factors in play in the policy-making process in each country. When will I be able to retire? This question has been answered differently across time and space. At first, after the initial introduction of state pensions, reductions in pension age were the norm: enabling people to retire earlier was a key aim of the welfare state. Recently, however, in the light of population ageing, policy-makers seek to secure the sustainability of pension systems. Possibilities include raising the age at which one is able to claim a state pension, adjusting benefits to the age of retirement, generally reducing replacement rates, or increasing contribution rates. The option of increasing the pensionable age often seems best as it increases ‘the revenues of the government, by adding more years of contributions, while it decreases the longevity risk borne by the state and the total amount it needs to pay to contributors when they eventually retire’ (Zaidi and Grech, 2007: 300) and because it maintains a sustainable balance between the number of years spent in work and those spent in retirement.
URI:	http://10.6.20.12:80/handle/123456789/53076
ISBN:	978–1–349–49781–2
Appears in Collections:	Population Studies

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