Low Pension Research Articles

Тенденции развития социальной защиты в разрезе отдельных категорий населения

The relevance of the work is due to the need to systematize modern changes in the field of social protection in relation to certain categories of beneficiaries. The empirical basis of the study consists of materials from an expert online survey of 28 representatives of academic science from 19 Russian cities. The analysis made it possible to draw a number of conclusions. In recent years, priority beneficiary categories have included families with children, elderly citizens, and people with disabilities. Social assistance/support and social services have become the predominant social protection mechanisms that have seen active development in recent years. The urgent need to increase the birth rate has given priority to monetary measures based on the mechanism of social assistance and support implemented at the federal level in relation to families with children. The state has identified social services at the regional level as the key mechanism for meeting the needs of elderly citizens and people with disabilities. Solving the problem of low pensions for elderly citizens and people with disabilities, based on the application of mechanisms of social insurance and social security, requires additional financial resources and changes in legal regulations at the federal level, which are currently unattainable in the near future. Conclusion dwells upon the fact that the development of social protection measures in recent years has been oriented not only towards the needs of beneficiaries but also towards the necessity of swiftly addressing issues relevant to the state. This necessitates the selection of appropriate social protection mechanisms and sources of resource provision for the measures undertaken.

고령여성의 빈곤대책으로서의 공적연금과 기초연금 - 한국과 독일 비교

Purpose: Korea reached an aging rate of 18.4% in 2023, and it is expected to reach 20.6% in 2025, making it a super-aged society. Meanwhile, Germany became a super-aged society in 2008, with an aging rate over 21%. In Korea and Germany, social concern about the elderly's poverty is increasing as the aging rate increases. However, there is a large difference between Korea and Germany in the relative poverty rate of the elderly, in particular for elderly women. This paper focuses on women's pension rights in the public pension and the basic security benefit in old age as measures against poverty of elderly women in Korea and Germany. Research design, data, and methodology: This paper examines the following two points as measures against poverty for the elderly in Korea and Germany, and compares the characteristics, similarities and differences between the two countries: First, the structures of women's pension rights and the pension amounts in the public pensions of Korea and Germany are compared. Second, as public pension and public assistance that guarantee stable income and minimum sociocultural standard of living for the elderly, Korea's “Basic Pension(BP)” and Germany's “Basic Security Benefit for the Elderly (GS: Grundsicherung)” and “Basic Pension(GR: Grundrente)” are compared. Results: The research results are the following three points. First, the relative poverty rate for elderly women in Germany is much lower than that in Korea, and one of the main reasons for this is consideration given to child-rearing period and short-time employment under the Pension law. In particular, the child-rearing period is an important factor for strengthening women's pension rights. Second, as a basic security benefit for the elderly, there is a “Basic Pension(BP)” in Korea, and there is a “Basic Security Benefit for the Elderly(GS)” in Germany. Although the two systems have similarities in terms of financial resources and means test methods, there are significant differences in the scope of eligible beneficiaries of benefit. Third, the basic pension(BP) in Korea and basic pension(GR) in Germany have the same name, and the financial resource for the benefits is borne by the government. But they are completely different systems. The basic pension(BP) in Korea is a public assistance, and its legal basis is similar to Basic Security Benefits for the Elderly(GS)''in Germany. The basic pension(GR) in Germany is an additional benefit added to the statutory public pension amounts and has the effect of increasing pension amount of elderly women in particular. Implications: Public pension and public assistance that guarantee the stable income and the sociocultural minimum subsistence level for women in old age are becoming more important than before. The public pension system in both countries have similarities in that the pension contribution is based on '' individual units'' and a dependent spouse is classified as Voluntary Insured Person. And both countries are enforcing ''basic pension'' as measures against poverty for the elderly. But the relative poverty rate for elderly women in Korea is 48.3%, much higher than 10.4% in Germany. The main reason for this difference between the two countries is the support in the pension system that takes into account women's child-rearing period, working style and low pension amount. Statutory public pension of Germany has the function of social compensation and burden distribution for child care. Korea, which needs to cope with its declining birthrate and aging society, needs to consider the achievements and effects of Germany, which takes into account the child-rearing support and the poverty measure for elderly women in its pension system.

Associations between employment and mental health of older workers with disparate conditions: Evidence from China

PurposeThis study aimed to examine associations between the employment of older people and mental health across demographic characteristics, socioeconomic conditions, and health status, with a focus on pensions. MethodsThis study included 4,512 participants aged 60–69 from the CLASS in 2014. A multiple linear regression was conducted to investigate the association between employment and mental health. A causal forest model was applied to estimate the heterogeneous treatment effects. ResultsEmployed individuals (n = 1,295) reported better mental health than their non-employed counterparts. This association displayed significant heterogeneity, primarily attributed to pensions. Those with lower pensions may be compelled to work due to financial reasons, thus offsetting the health-promotion effect of employment. ConclusionEmployment may benefit the mental health of older adults, which has a more significant marginal effect on those who are men, older, urban residents, without a spouse, below primary education, receiving more pensions, and less family and friend support.

Reformoptionen – die keine sind

Abstract In the German pension debate, reform options are repeatedly proposed that are doomed to failure right from the start as they cannot be legally implemented to begin with. One of these is the inclusion of civil servants in the German state pension scheme. This option, however, is prohibited by the German Constitution. Another example is the inclusion of self-employed persons. This demand cannot be met as many freelancers are unable to pay their full contributions. Inflation adjustment of pensions would mean too much of a burden for women as well as for the sick and the disabled. Redistributing money from pensioners with high benefits to pensioners with a low pension would not be conducive, either. Not only would this mean an infringement of the principle of equality, but also there are too few high pensions to redistribute.

Personalized Information as a Tool to Improve Pension Savings: Results from a Randomized Control Trial in Chile

We randomly offer to workers in Chile personalized versus generalized information about their pension savings and forecasted pension income. Personalized information increased the probability and amounts of voluntary contributions after one year without crowding-out other forms of savings. Personalization appears to be very important: individuals who overestimated their pension at the time of the intervention saved more. Thus, a person’s inability to understand how the pension system affects them may partially explain low pension savings. Despite the significant response to the intervention, its temporary nature and size suggest that information should be combined with other elements to increase its efficiency.

Does pension fund ownership reduce market manipulation? Evidence from China

This study demonstrates that Chinese stock pension funds have similar investment preferences to mutual funds (pensions and mutual funds are managed by the same group of fund managers) but consistently underperform (outperform) their mutual fund counterparts in growth (value) stock investing. We call this contradiction China’s pension fund puzzle. To solve this puzzle, we provide evidence that stocks with low pension fund ownership have undertaken high price manipulation risks and should be compensated by a risk manipulation premium. We designed a logit (probit) Model training method using four different datasets to train the Model. The results show that the pension fund shareholding variable significantly reduced the probability of price manipulation (logit: −6.37, t = −4.13; probit:−1.72, t = −4.63). In the asset pricing framework, we constructed a price manipulation factor and evaluate its pricing performance. The Chinese market had a significant price manipulation premium of 1.9% (t = 2.006).

Caught in a Matrix of Factors: A Pilot Study of Female Retirees Receiving Below-Minimum Pension Payments

Pension systems based on an insurance model were originally designed for male breadwinners who worked under permanent contracts without career breaks. Since their inception, women’s participation in the workforce has increased significantly, but on average, their employment career paths are still shorter and less linear compared to those that men enjoy. Demographic changes have prompted many countries to reform their pension systems to ensure long-term financial sustainability. And to varying degrees, such reforms also have looked to address the issue of short careers. In Poland, reforms introduced in 1999 brought about significant changes to the rules governing pension entitlement. That led to the emergence of a new category of retirees—those who had contributed to the pension system for a short period and consequently received very low pensions. This article provides an overview of an exploratory qualitative pilot study conducted in 2018 with nine women who were in receipt of benefits from the Polish universal pension system, which amounted to less than the so-called ‘lowest retirement pension’ being granted at that time. The analysis makes recourse to the concept of employment career and its connection to retirement to identify various life-course determinants that contributed to their situation. These factors include childhood and adolescent adversities that affected educational attainment; domestic and caregiving responsibilities coupled with cultural expectations and insufficient institutional support; the labor market situation, and the inability to document certain employment periods. The research material indicates that a significant portion of the work performed by the interviewees throughout their lives did not translate into a pension benefit, as it either involved unpaid domestic and caregiving duties; or work performed without formal contracts.

When should retirees tap their home equity?

This paper analyzes a household's optimal demand for a reverse mortgage. We study a rich life-cycle model that can explain the low demand for reverse mortgages as observed in US data. We find that the demand for reverse mortgages is particularly pronounced for cash-poor, house-rich retirees, and households with a strong bequest motive and low pension income. We analyze the optimal response of a household that is confronted with a health shock or financial disaster. If an agent suffers from an unexpected health shock, she reduces the risky portfolio share and is more likely to enter a reverse mortgage. If there is a large drop in the stock market, she keeps the risky portfolio share almost constant by buying additional shares of stock. Furthermore, the probability to take out a reverse mortgage is hardly affected unless her financial wealth is small.

Only daughters caring for their aging mothers in Ufa, Russia

Russia is not the only country in the world that relies heavily on informal caregiving, but what makes Russia unique is the number of single-parent one-child families. With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the transition from state socialism to market capitalism, little has changed in terms of the social protection of older adults. Unaffordable home care services, low pensions, bifurcation of the formerly free healthcare into state and private sectors, the invisibility of people with disabilities, and the absence of quality nursing homes, have left adult children in Russia no choice but to bear the full burden of caregiving for their aging parents completely alone. Given the scarcity of research that examines informal caregiving in Russia in general and in provincial cities in particular, this study addresses this gap by centering on previously unheard voices of a unique group of women: only children of single mothers from Ufa, a metropolitan city in the Ural Mountains. Twenty middle-aged (M = 40.75, SD = 3.43), college-educated women participated in a two-hour, semi-structured interview. Inductive thematic analysis revealed three themes: incongruence with the microenvironment, aging in the “cement box,” and distrust of outsiders. The findings suggest material and cultural constraints that female caregivers face as they negotiate the mothers’ discordance with the microenvironment of Khrushchev-era apartments.

Path to Vietnam's Welfare System Sustainability

This research paper examines the Vietnamese welfare system, concentrating on its distinctive characteristics shaped by cultural influences, demographic demands, and the country's developmental trajectory. The four elements of Vietnam's social protection system are employment and guaranteed minimum income, social insurance, social assistance, and basic social amenities. The importance of cultural practices, such as street vending, in combating poverty and providing affordable food options cannot be overstated. However, the welfare system's sustainability confronts obstacles, such as low pension coverage, financial viability, an early retirement age, and limited participant benefits. The report suggests increasing pension coverage, enhancing financial viability, re-evaluating the retirement age, enhancing benefits, and bolstering social welfare programs. The purpose of these recommendations is to resolve obstacles and improve the sustainability of Vietnam's welfare system.

Older women with a low pension, living in Sweden: Strategies to age in place and thoughts about future housing

ABSTRACT Financial security influences good quality housing, health, and longevity, but few recent studies of the financial aspects of aging in place have been published. We explored strategies used to age in place and thoughts about future housing among women aged 65 and older living with a low pension in Sweden. We conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews with 13 women aged 65 and older with a low pension, followed by thematic analysis. Three themes were generated. “Adjusting to a low pension” explains that most participants needed to supplement their pension with savings or earnings to afford housing and living costs. “The home as a home – and an asset” explains that relocating or renting out the property were common strategies that could raise money to supplement their pension. “Thoughts about the future (home)” explains that most participants preferred to age in place, but pragmatic considerations about potential housing costs, housing type, housing locality, safety, and security were expressed. In addition to the need for further research on this topic, our findings have implications for community planning and can be used to inform pension and housing policies in Sweden and countries with similar welfare systems.

Actual directions for increasing the income of the population and reducing social stratification

Within the framework of this scientific work, the goal was to study modern approaches used in the field of impact on increasing the income of individuals and reducing social differentiation between individual groups and classes. To measure the dynamics of changes in the phenomena under consideration, the authors analyzed the average per capita nominal income of society in the period from 2011 to 2022. The authors studied the data concerning real incomes, which made it possible to conduct a comparative analysis between nominal and real incomes. Within the framework of the presented work, political aspects in the field of reducing the level of social differentiation were considered. The basis was the data obtained in the calculation of key indicators of social differentiation, namely the Gini coefficient, the Lorenz curve and the decile coefficient. Data for Russia were compared with data for other countries to determine its place in the global structure in terms of social stratification. The authors identified key problems that become barriers to reducing the level of social differentiation, among which the slow growth of the minimum wage, low pensions, as well as consistently high coefficients, reflecting high social stratification, are highlighted, which was confirmed by the results of the author's analysis. A particularly important problem was the concealment of high incomes, which significantly weakens the state social policy. As key areas for reducing the level of social differentiation, the authors proposed the development of a mechanism of interbudgetary transfers to stimulate the development of the region's own economic potential, support for the economic potential of backward territories, as well as indexation of social benefits and wages.

A methodology to design, develop, and evaluate machine learning models for predicting dropout in school systems: the case of Chile.

School dropout is a structural problem which permanently penalizes students and society in areas such as low qualification jobs, higher poverty levels and lower life expectancy, lower pensions, and higher economic burden for governments. Given these high consequences and the surge of the problem due to COVID-19 pandemic, in this paper we propose a methodology to design, develop, and evaluate a machine learning model for predicting dropout in school systems. In this methodology, we introduce necessary steps to develop a robust model to estimate the individual risk of each student to drop out of school. As advancement from previous research, this proposal focuses on analyzing individual trajectories of students, incorporating the student situation at school, family, among other levels, changes, and accumulation of events to predict dropout. Following the methodology, we create a model for the Chilean case based on data available mostly through administrative data from the educational system, and according to known factors associated with school dropout. Our results are better than those from previous research with a relevant sample size, with a predictive capability 20% higher for the actual dropout cases. Also, in contrast to previous work, the including non-individual dimensions results in a substantive contribution to the prediction of leaving school. We also illustrate applications of the model for Chilean case to support public policy decision making such as profiling schools for qualitative studies of pedagogic practices, profiling students' dropout trajectories and simulating scenarios.

РОЛЬ И ЗНАЧЕНИЕ «ЗАРПЛАТНЫХ» НАЛОГОВ И СТРАХОВЫХ ВЗНОСОВ В ДОХОДАХ БЮДЖЕТОВ И ПЕНСИОННОГО ФОНДА РОССИЙСКОЙ ФЕДЕРАЦИИ (СОЦИАЛЬНОГО ФОНДА)

The taxes paid by citizens are highly valuable in social and economic aspect, as the state generates budget revenues at various levels and regulates the citizens’ incomes to balance the income differrence between various groups of the population using taxation. Taxes from an individual’s revenues and insurance contributions, which are not considered taxes, are differentiated as “salary” taxes and fees. In addition, the first ones are paid from the salary (revenue) of an employee, while insurance contributions are added to an employee’s salary. Since 2001, following the adoption of Chapter 23 “Tax on the individuals’ income” of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, a schedule form of income tax came in force: an appropriate tax rate applies to various types of income, and a flat scale of taxation with tax deductions is used for wages. Since January 1, 2010, a single social tax has been replaced with insurance premiums, which are assessed at a higher rate than that of the single social tax (using regression for pension insurance contributions). The study aims to analyze the dynamics of the population’s monetary incomes, the tax role on an individual’s income in the revenues of the consolidated budgets of the subjects of the Russian Federation, and the insurance contributions in the Pension Fund income (the Social Fund of Russia since 2023). It is determined that flat scale taxation has led to a weakening of the regulatory and incentive-based function of the tax and a sharp differentiation of the population by income level. The replacement of the single social tax with insurance contributions did not solve the problem of pension provision, low wages result in low pension payments. The article substantiates the need for introducing an effective progressive scale in order to calculate taxes on the income of individuals, and to revise the regressive scale in the assessment of insurance contributions.

Attachment to land and its downfalls: Can policy encourage land mobility?

Sentimental ties to land in Ireland result in less than 1 percent of agricultural land being sold each year and land rental is among the lowest of countries in the European Union. The findings highlight that longer leases are associated with large farms and those with a high percentage of land rented in, but revised policies are required to encourage more landowners to rent out their land. Improved land mobility can reduce issues such as barriers to entry for farmers, the economic vulnerability of farms, low farm succession rates, low pensions and an ageing farmer population. The history of land in Ireland and the non-pecuniary benefits of farming are also discussed.

Drivers of pension growth in the long term

One of the main challenges for the Russian insurance pension system in the long term is to sustain an acceptable ratio of pensions to wages and to prevent the growth of the share of pensioners with unacceptably low pensions. The key challenges and factors affecting the level of pensions have been identified. A set of potential measures for a more acceptable dynamics of pensions, their risks and limitations have been revealed. Forecast calculations for the period up to 2050 on the model of the Russian insurance pension system developed by the authors made it possible to estimate the impact of relevant factors and measures on key pension indicators. It is shown that the implementation of these measures can ensure in 2030—2050: the coefficient of the relative level of pensions (to average wage) of about 40%; the theoretical replacement rate (at 35 years of service and the average wage in Russia) of about 50%; the ratio of the average pension payment to non-working recipients of the old-age insurance pension to the subsistence minimum for pensioners — about 250% in 2030—2035 and 380% by 2050; reducing the share of those whose pension payment is less than the minimum subsistence level, almost by half relative to the inertial scenario — to 6—8%.

THE ROLE OF OLD-AGE INSURANCE SYSTEM IN PROMOTING THE SATISFACTION AND EMOTIONAL REGULATION OF THE ELDERLY IN RURAL CHINA: FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF HETEROGENEOUS INCOME EFFECT

Abstract Background In the process of global population aging, old-age insurance, as the most important channel to provide income support for the elderly, is the need of countries all over the world, especially developing countries. As the largest developing country in the world, China launched the “new rural pension plan” (NRPS) pilot pension plan in 2009. By the end of 2012, the pilot has been extended to all counties in the country. The most disappointing thing about NRPS is that compared with China's rural absolute poverty line, pension benefits across the country are very low. However, even if the basic pension benefits are very low, most of the registered elderly in rural China are very satisfied with the NRP. Although NRPS has limited impact on improving the income of the elderly due to the low national pension treatment, how to explain the elderly's satisfaction with the plan and its role in the emotional regulation of the elderly? Research Objects and Methods Among all the outcome variables of NRPS, income is the most critical one, because all other outcome variables are determined by income. Therefore, this study uses the national representative data of 2013 and focuses on the impact of NRP on the income of the elderly. Then, we use quantile regression in regression discontinuity design (RDD) to show the income impact of NRP on different income groups, especially low-income groups, in order to answer this question from the perspective of the heterogeneous income impact of NRP. At the same time, we analyzed the correlation between emotion regulation ability and social loneliness. The results show that the aggregation validity: the correlation between Russell's emotional loneliness item and UCLA Loneliness Scale is 0.44, and the correlation between the item “no one can trust”, the correlation value is 0.4, and the correlation value between “I'm no longer close to anyone” is 0.44. The correlation between social loneliness and UCLA scale was 0.47, the correlation between social loneliness and UCLA scale was -0.47, and the correlation between social loneliness and UCLA scale was -0.35. In other words, the items in UCLA that should be related to Russell's problems in theory are actually significantly higher than other items. Social and emotional loneliness is related to the six factors that Weiss proposed in interpersonal relationships, namely attachment, social integration, development opportunities, recognition of value, trusted alliance and guidance. Social loneliness is most related to the demand for uncertain value, while emotional loneliness is most related to the need for attachment. Social and emotional loneliness were significantly correlated with depression; Only emotional loneliness is related to anxiety. On the whole, these results are in line with R.S. Weiss's theory. Results The results show that NRP successfully improves the income of all income groups, although the impact of NRP on the median income distribution is limited due to the low pension benefits. Among all income distribution ratios, NRP plays a disproportionate role in increasing the income of the elderly: the positive role of the top of income distribution is much greater than that of the bottom. We also found that in all percentiles, NRP has a greater positive impact on rural elderly women than rural elderly men, thus narrowing the gender income gap in rural China. Even if the impact of China's rural minimum living security scheme on increasing the income of rural elderly is controlled, these findings are still reliable. In the process of the influence of life events on anxiety, emotional response plays an intermediary role and psychological elasticity plays a regulatory role. Psychological resilience regulates life events through the mediating effect of emotional response on anxiety. That is, the higher the psychological elasticity, adjust the impact of life events on anxiety through coping style to reduce it; On the contrary, the lower the level of psychological elasticity, adjust the impact of life events on anxiety through coping style to increase it. Conclusion Although the disproportionate impact of NRP on all percentiles exacerbates the income inequality of the rural elderly, it provides an income risk aversion mechanism for the first time in Chinese history. Under the framework of expected utility theory, the actual value of the mechanism is much greater than its monetary value, resulting in higher satisfaction of the rural elderly. Since the NRP has limited effect on increasing the income of the rural elderly, we suggest reforming the NRP, such as increasing the basic pension treatment of the rural absolute poverty line, transitioning to non contributory pension plan, and unifying the provincial plan into a national plan.

The Global Pension Index of Slovakia

In every corner of quality of the world, the issue of pension system is being addressed. One of the most important documents that has offered its evaluation is the Mercer consulting firm and the CFA Institute, in cooperation with the Monash Center for Financial Studies. Since Slovakia is not included among the countries that evaluate these companies in their study, this paper offers the calculation of the Global Pension Index for Slovakia in the year 2020. Based on the data obtained and the grade from A to E, Slovakia is one of the countries that are rated by C+ with a total score of 65 points out of 100 as a country with a pension system “that has some good features, but also includes major risks and/or shortcomings that should be addressed. Without these improvements, its efficacy and/or long-term sustainability can be questioned.” The problems that affect the pension index of Slovakia are very low pensions for low-income groups, the level of pension assets as a percentage of GDP at the level of 14.35%, the participation in the labour rate at the level of 4.5% for the age 65 and over, and low real economic growth.

Reforms of an early retirement pathway in Germany and their labor market effects

AbstractWe study causal effects of two early retirement reforms. Reform 1 increased normal retirement age stepwise from 60 to 63. Simultaneously, it became possible to use early retirement with benefit discounts. Reform 2 increased the age of early retirement stepwise from 60 to 63. We investigate behavioral responses to the reforms using administrative data and difference-in-differences strategies. We find strong and significant causal effects of both reforms. Individuals postponed retirement, stayed employed longer, postponed unemployment, and shifted to alternative pathways into retirement. The overall use of the retirement system declined by about 1.5 and 2 months per person after each of the two reforms. Individuals with low pension wealth and those who were affected immediately by the reform responded more strongly.

Uwarunkowania wykluczenia emerytalnego z dodatkowej części systemu emerytalnego w Polsce

The study addresses the issues of exclusion from the supplementary part of the Polish pension system. The main goals of the research are: 1) characterising retirement exclusion as a specific type of financial exclusion, and 2) identifying and assessing key determinants of retirement exclusion in the supplementary part of the Polish pension system. The article is epistemological and classifying in nature. In the review part, the research methods used are based on a critical analysis of the literature and a synthesis of its conclusions. The main part is based on a meta-analysis of the results of surveys regarding pension awareness and propensity to save, elements of the economic analysis of law, and analysis of existing data. The presented considerations lead to the formulation of arguments, that justify the thesis that the scale and extent of retirement exclusion in the supplementary part of the Polish pension system are a derivative of factors included in four meta-categories: 1. low pension awareness, 2. low saving potential, 3. low propensity to save, and 4. limited availability of pension products.