This report details the key findings of the sixth annual governance survey, conducted by the Pensions Regulator (‘the regulator’) amongst trust-based defined contribution (DC), defined benefit (DB) and hybrid schemes with 12 or more members.

Egne pensjonsordninger for særskilte yrkesgrupper har lange historiske røtter i Europa. Slike yrkespensjonsordninger ble i mange europeiske land etablert som de første pensjonsordningene, lenge før de offentlige sosialforsikringssystemene ble etablert. Det var først og fremst i offentlig sektor det historisk utviklet seg egne pensjonsordninger for yrkesgrupper basert på egne lover, typisk for embetsmenn og militært personell, men også for ulike yrkesgrupper i helsevesenet. I noen tilfeller var det særlige yrkesgrupper som sjømenn og fiskere som fikk egne ordninger. I Norge er det eksempler på begge slike typer av yrkesordninger.

The purpose of this paper is to estimate the effect of occupational pensions (OPs) on wages for a large sample of Norwegian private sector firms. Knowledge about the offset between pensions and wages is becoming increasingly important, as OPs are expected to play a more prominent role in retirement provision in many countries where governments seek to reduce their pension commitments.

Norwegian administrative data are used to evaluate the impact of a doubling of the threshold in the retirement earnings test. We find almost no impact on the extensive margin, but a positive effect on the intensive margin. This positive effect is uneven over the earnings distribution, and concentrated on workers around the threshold, increasing with exposure to the reform and leading to a decrease in earnings inequality. Individuals who remain active until retirement age respond more to the reform. Conditional on pre-reform earnings, we find little evidence that individual characteristics such as working histories influence the responsiveness to the reform.

As interest in proposals to restore Social Security solvency rises, it’s timely to examine whether current policy analyses provide adequate information on important distributional questions. This project explores measures of changes in Social Security benefits’ adequacy, horizontal equity, and efficiency under different proposals. We apply the measures to simulation output from the Urban Institute’s Dynamic Simulation of Income Model under the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform Social Security proposal. A series of exhibits illustrates how they work and could inform policymakers about the relative merits of varied options to restore the program’s long-run solvency and meet other objectives.

Pensionsåldersutredningens analyser visar att förutsättningarna för äldre att arbeta längre är allt bättre. Det finns åtskilliga hinder som behöver mötas med breda och ömsesidigt förstärkande åtgärder.

Foretakspensjonene i privat sektor skal tilpasses ny folketrygd. For første gang gjennomføres en del av Pensjonsreformen i en tid preget av den internasjonale krisa. Lav rente, svak aksjeavkastning, en todelt industri og økte kapitalkrav for banker og forsikringsselskap gjør at både virksomheter og pensjonsleverandører stirrer ekstra hardt på bunnlinjen. Mange bedrifter har allerede eller står i startgropa for å løpe fra kostnaden knyttet til den risiko det er å sikre arbeidstakerne forutsigbare pensjoner.

Ageing populations and the un-sustainability of public pension arrangements have led governments around the world to rethink their pension systems. One solution is to increase the role of private pensions, either in the form of occupational or personal pension arrangements. As such private pensions increase globally, how to ensure they are effectively and efficiently regulated and supervised becomes an issue of significant importance.

Ett av IA-avtalens mål i perioden 2001-2009 var å heve den reelle pensjoneringsalderen for en 50-åring. Det målet ble nådd – men skyldes det virksomhetenes seniorpolitikk og seniortiltak?

Ulike studier viser at seniorene setter pris på tiltakene, men at effekten på arbeidstilbudet og pensjoneringsatferden er uklar. Fafo har undersøkt om seniortiltakene faktisk har påvirket sykefravær, uførepensjonering og AFP-pensjonering, men vi har funnet få effekter. Det betyr ikke at seniortiltak ikke kan virke, men våre funn tilsier at type tiltak, fordelingskriterier og andre rammebetingelser bør gjennomgås nærmere. Resultatene av analysene presenteres på dette frokostseminaret.

Monthly Social Security benefits claimed at age 62, rather than 65, are reduced about 20 percent to avoid additional costs to the program. When the reduction was set over 50 years ago, a worker claiming at 62 received benefits about 20 percent longer. As life expectancy has risen, this worker now receives benefits only about 15 percent longer. But the cost of benefits, the present discounted value of lifetime benefits, also depends on interest rates. Rates have generally risen since the 1960s, making future benefits less costly. These higher rates have largely offset the impact of rising life expectancy, suggesting that the reduction factor has proven remarkably durable over time.

One reason young workers don’t save for retirement is that the event is so far off. An experiment to boost their saving tested different ads: abstract or concrete wording (“why you should save more now” vs. “how you can save more now”); and a short- or long-term savings goal (“how much to save from each paycheck” vs. “how much to save over your lifetime”). The most effective ads paired abstract wording with a long-term goal and concrete wording with a short-term goal. Therefore, communications designed to spur saving by young workers should match the framing of the message to the time horizon of the savings milestone.

Early retirement from regular employment provides a major challenge to social and health policies in Europe. “As people older than 60 will comprise close to one third of the population in several European countries over the next two decades, a shrinking number of economically active people will have to support a growing number of economically dependent elderly people” (SHARE, 2009, p.5). There is, therefore, a political focus on the need to maintain workers longer in employment. An example of this European endeavour is the declaration by the European Council (Stockholm, March 2001) that claimed that by 2010 at least half of the EU population aged between 55 and 64 shall be in employment.