Pensions in the Age of COVID-19: Recent Changes and Future Challenges

Abstract

Pension policy is not safe from the potentially dramatic consequences of the pandemic. But in terms of pension politics, the pandemic also represents a window of opportunity to rethink the political debate on the future reform agenda.The present policy brief sheds light on the short- and long-term consequences of Covid-19 for pensions in Europe. The short-term measures have consisted of temporary reduction and/or deferral of social contributions, ad hoc benefits for at-risk elderly, and the provision of additional resources to the social security budget. However, the longer-term effects are projected to be massive both for financial sustainability and social adequacy.Although there seems to be an open room for social spending to buffer the effects of the crisis, still, pension policies recall old debates regarding the intergenerational clash between younger generations in need of greater financial support and older generations with unsustainable social (and pension) rights.