Old-age Protection Research Articles

Preventing Electoral Fraud in Indonesia: Protecting the Social Security of Election Management Personnel

Indonesia’s Election Management Bodies (EMBs), constitutionally mandated to manage legislative and presidential elections, face substantial risks, including accidents and fatalities. However, their social security rights are often overshadowed by the focus on civil servants and private-sector workers. This study, employing normative legal research, urges the need for state protection of EMBs’ social security rights, drawing on secondary data sources. EMBs should receive comprehensive work-related accident benefits, death benefit programs, and old-age protection schemes from the Workers Social Security Agency (BPJS Ketenagakerjaan). The legal basis for these social security rights can be found in several legislative provisions, including the Indonesian 1945 Constitution, the National Social Security System Law, and other related regulations. Recognizing EMBs as state-serving workers is a crucial step in safeguarding their social security rights. This recognition is not merely a matter of legal interpretation; it is a necessity to ensure a fair and secure electoral environment. By ensuring that EMBs are accorded the same rights and protections as other workers, the state can create a more equitable electoral process and reinforce the integrity of its democratic institutions.

An alternative to the one-child policy in China

In recent years, the problem of ageing in the country has become increasingly serious. In addition, with the number of newborn babies dropping sharply, social pressure increasing and the number of young workers seriously insufficient, the problem of old age has become a severe test before people and is gradually affecting social and economic development. Between 2005 and 2021, the proportion of Chinas total population aged 60 and over will rise from 11.1% to 12.5%, and the old-age dependency coefficient from 10.69% to 11.60%. In order to alleviate this predicament, the State has introduced a new policy aimed at providing better old-age protection for the elderly and improving their living standards. This new policy not only helps to solve the problem of old age, but also reduces the burden of the only child, and should be based on Chinas national conditions to establish an old age system with Chinese characteristics, so that old age is no longer difficult. Chinas future population will be very different from before.

A study of the effect of number of children on depression among rural older women: empirical evidence from China.

The association between early reproductive events and health status in later life has always been of interest across disciplines. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether there was an association between the number of children born in the early years of elderly women and their depression in later life based on a sample of older women aged 65 years and above with at least one child in rural China. Data from the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey in 2018, this study used the ordinary least square method to conduct empirical research. This study has found a significant correlation between an increase in the number of children and depression in older rural women. When considering the sex of the child, the number of daughters had a greater and more significant impact on depression. Number of children may exacerbate depression of older women through declining self-rated health and reduced social activity, while increased inter-generational support alleviated depression. The association between number of children born and depression also existed in urban older women, though not significant. Therefore, it is suggested to accelerate the improvement of supporting policies related to childbirth, developing a healthy and scientific fertility culture, and improving rural maternal and child health services. Women should be assisted in balancing their roles in the family and in society, and in particular in sharing the burden of caring for children. Targeted efforts to increase old-age protection for older people.

Negotiating Social Protection and Care: A Study of First-Generation Older Turkish Community in London

Access to social protection in old age is crucial and yet contingent upon negotiations between the social structures of the welfare states and the personal networks within which individuals are embedded. International migration, changing family dynamics, and the transformation of care and other welfare policies in the global North make it challenging for older migrants to negotiate social protection. Drawing on 45 semi-structured interviews with first-generation older Turkish migrants in London and 13 semi-structured interviews with professional service providers for the community, the paper aims to investigate the assemblages of formal and informal social protection in the lives of older migrants. Findings indicate the complexity in accessing informal social protection and the navigation of formal care support in the UK for first generation older Turkish migrants and the contingency of access to formal care services on informal support networks for participants. It has been demonstrated that built infrastructure and policies aimed at older adults have great influence on assemblages of care, highlighting the need for more age-friendly and integrated policies to facilitate access to social protection for diverse groups of older adults.

Od dożywocia do emerytury. Ewolucja systemu zabezpieczenia starości na wsi polskiej w latach 1945–1989 i jej echa w korespondencji chłopskiej

The article is an attempt at the analysis of the evolution of the insurance scheme to provide old-age protection for peasants in 1945–89. In addition to the literature on the subject, the research was based on archival materials mainly from the fonds of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers’ Party kept in the Central Archives of Modern Records, the files of the Office of Letters of the Polish Radio and Television (preserved in the Documentation and Programme Collections Centre of the Polish Television SA) and, to a lesser extent, court documents found in the State Archives in Siedlce. The subject of the research was the institution of life annuity and the evolution of the social insurance system for farmers, especially the changes in legal regulations made from the 1960s to the 1980s.

The road ahead: should Hong Kong develop five pillars of old age protection?

PurposeThis paper demonstrates that Hong Kong currently provides four pillars of old-age protection: a publicly managed and noncontributory social security system (zero pillar), a funded contribution scheme (the second pillar), voluntary personal savings (the third pillar) and informal support, formal social programs and other individual financial assets (the fourth pillar). This paper aims at evaluating current four pillars of old-age protection and unraveling the deep-seated causes underlying the current old-age protection model by tracing a short history from 1965 onward. This paper aims at making recommendations about the current old-age protection model.Design/methodology/approachThe paper analyzes the current four pillars of old age protection. A comprehensive literature review was conducted covering relevant government reports, academics' journal papers and nongovernmental organizations' reports concerning the development of old age protection system from 1965 to the present.FindingsThe poverty rate of elderly residents was approximately 44.5% between 2009 and 2018, indicating that the four pillars of old-age protection had been unable to alleviate poverty in the aging population. The development of the current four pillars is attributed to a residual welfare system, the effectiveness of which is further dependent on familial dependence or welfare financialization. However, the reliability of familial dependence is affected by the declining coresidence rate and low fertility rate, whereas welfare financialization not only predominately favors financial institutions but also exacerbates income polarization. Therefore, the University of Hong Kong (2014) introduced an additional pillar of noncontributory social pension and assistance, which generated a contentious debate. The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government initiated a public engagement exercise on retirement protection in 2015 to assess public opinion on old-age protection. These consultation exercises were met with broad public disappointment because of the explicit reservations imposed by the government on the proposals.Practical implicationsAlthough the government's resistant attitude can be attributed to the residual welfare system, pension reform needs to be urgently implemented at three levels, namely strengthening of each pillar, emphasis on the pillar's interrelatedness and introduction of the first pillar.Originality/valueThe poverty of the elderly population is serious in Hong Kong. It is important to solve the deep-seated problems faced by the current old-age protection model. Hence, it comes a critical time to design a sustainable old-age protection model despite the heated discussion on the establishment of a central provident fund and pension system among officials since 1960s.

Pension indexation for retirees revisited – Normative patterns and legal standards

Maintaining adequate pension levels throughout the entire retirement phase is a persistent challenge in old-age protection. Most public pension schemes in OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries provide for some form of indexation for pensions in payment. These mechanisms have been object of frequent revisions for different purposes, in particular across Europe. This article explores the social and financial policy objectives linked to standard indexation parameters in public pension schemes, and offers a rough taxonomy of additional factors used to modify traditional indexation arrangements, with a special focus on changing rules and practices adopted in the European Union (EU) area after the 2008 international economic and financial crisis. Analysis suggests that early responses were mainly driven by cost containment ideas, whereas more recently, a subtle shift towards adequacy-oriented interventions can be noticed. The article argues that restrictive pension indexation rules in combination with overall retrenchment of public pension provision fail to take into account the increasing duration of retirement and corresponding pension erosion. Such failure calls into question not only income security during retirement as a major objective of old-age pensions but also compliance with international standards of social security set by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the Council of Europe. More social policy research is needed in view of the increasing complexities of indexation rules, as shortfalls in indexation can cause significant impairment in the living conditions of older pensioners, predominantly women.

La protección de las mujeres en su vejez

En Colombia, como en otros países del mundo, las mujeres reciben menores salarios y experimentan mayores interrupciones en el mercado formal de trabajo, frente a los hombres. Las anteriores condiciones reducen la probabilidad de tener una protección económica adecuada en la vejez. La distribución inequitativa de las labores no remuneradas del cuidado del hogar juega un rol importante en este contexto. Por ello, las políticas encaminadas a corregir las disparidades de género en el mercado laboral son esenciales. El presente artículo reconoce la importancia de estas acciones. Sin embargo, se concentra en políticas directamente relacionadas con mecanismos de protección social que mejoren la probabilidad de que las mujeres reciban una pensión o de que incrementen su mesada pensional. El artículo describe y explica las bajas tasas de cobertura pensional entre las adultas mayores colombianas. Adicionalmente, explora y analiza las políticas de protección en favor de las mujeres que se han llevado a cabo en otros países con el fin de discutir posibles iniciativas para Colombia.

Reforming public pensions in democratizing Korea and Taiwan: actors, institutions and policy outcomes

ABSTRACTDespite the fact that Korea and Taiwan are often cited together to have shared a common path, their post-democratization developmental trajectory shows a diverging pattern. Taking the case of public pension reform, we argue that the changing nature of political competition and its impact on pension reforms are key, particularly in relation to the ways in which the existing structure of old-age protection influences the configuration of pension politics. The arrival of democratic governance itself does not tell us much about the possible reform agendas and trajectories. Nor does it provide us with a clear understanding of the distributional implications of public policies as institutions. Instead we see growing prominence of the policy dynamics around the question of how the early decisions and choices shape the emerging interest formation. Democratic politics has accelerated policy’s influence on politics, reinforcing the conditioning effect of the legacies the earlier policymaking episodes have created.

Social and Psychological Barriers to Private Retirement Savings in Hong Kong

Using a phone survey conducted among Hong Kong workers, we examined the association of institutional, social, and psychological factors with engagement in both private retirement savings and the total amount of savings. Alarmingly, this study demonstrates that approximately 42% of Hong Kong workers do not save privately for their retirement. We found that age, education, number of children, support from spouse and friends, social regulation, perceived financial knowledge, and financial management capacity are associated with engagement in private retirement savings. Among those who saved, age, education, perceived financial knowledge, and financial management capacity are related to the amount of savings. Measures that could increase the social support for retirement savings as well as enhance their financial knowledge and management ability should be developed and implemented so that more workers engage in private retirement savings. A promising policy option for the Hong Kong government is to offer a tax incentive to promote additional savings for old-age income protection.

Strengthening Market Principles in Welfare Institutions: How Hybrid Pension Systems Impact on Social-risk Spreading

AbstractIn the past two decades, the question of how pension systems should be designed to offer ‘adequate and sustainable pensions for all’ has been raised. As a result, European pension systems, in which market principles in general have played a marginal or even negligible role in the past, were redesigned, with market-based pensions becoming part of the pension calculation norm, i.e. the institutionalised and nationally defined target level for old-age protection. However, since the hybrid pension systems are institutionalised very differently, pension systems’ ingredients, characteristics and nexus are far from being homogeneous, and the role of market principles in hybrid systems differs. These differences significantly determine the degree of social protection of the various social citizens and the number of future pensioners with adequate pensions. An illustrative comparison of the contrasting Dutch and German institutional setups indicates differences in the manner in which market principles have been strengthened in the pension system, and the related effects these differences have on social-risk spreading.

Old‐age protection for women in the Spanish pension system

AbstractThe example of Spain confirms the common view that contributory pension systems reproduce inequalities between the sexes that result from the nature of labour market structures and the sharing of family responsibilities. In general, women who stay at home are not entitled to their own pensions and are dependent on benefits of lower value such as survivors' pensions (derived entitlements) or non‐contributory pensions. In turn, women who work outside the home accrue lower entitlements than men and, consequently, lower old‐age or disability pensions (personal entitlements). The purpose of this article is to examine the figures for pension distribution by sex in Spain, review some of the pension policies that have been implemented since 2000, and propose direct action for progress in the transition from derived entitlements to personal entitlements. These proposals are designed to promote sex equality, defined as the right to equal well‐being and financial security in old age.

FINANCIAL SECURITY PROTECTIONS IN MALAYSIA, SINGAPORE AND PHILIPPINES: A PERSPECTIVE OF TWO GENERATIONS

The study investigated the formal and informal old age protections in the major cities of Malaysia, Singapore and Philippines. The role of family support as important source of old-age protection in Asian countries was also investigated. Data were collected using a survey-interview method. A total of 250 young population and 250 of the elderly population in Kuala Lumpur were interviewed. Similar number of young and elderly population was interviewed in Manila. In Singapore, data was collected from 206 and 161 young and elderly population respectively. A Venn diagram was constructed to analyse the overlapping of availability of the various old age protections for the two generations and their relative sizes among the three cities were compared. Given the many agreement on the inadequacy of the formal old-age benefits, many reverted to informal protections such as insurance, savings and family support. With the exception of Manila, reliance on the family support as perceived by the younger generations has lost its importance.

Fading Immune Protection in Old Age: Vaccination in the Elderly

The function of the immune system declines with age, leading to an increased occurrence and severity of infectious diseases and a decreased response to vaccines. As the thymus gradually loses its ability to replenish the population of naïve T cells, the memory and effector T cells increase in number and dominate the repertoire. The changes in the naïve and memory T cell pool that occur with ageing in man are discussed here, along with a brief update of the knowledge of B cell populations in the elderly.

Sarcopenic-obesity and cardiovascular disease risk in the elderly.

To determine: 1) whether sarcopenic-obesity is a stronger predictor of cardiovascular disease (CVD) than either sarcopenia or obesity alone in the elderly, and 2) whether muscle mass or muscular strength is a stronger marker of CVD risk. Prospective cohort study. Participants included 3366 community-dwelling older (>or= 65 years) men and women who were free of CVD at baseline. Waist circumference (WC), bioimpedance analysis, and grip strength were used to measure abdominal obesity, whole-body muscle mass, and muscular strength, respectively. Subjects were classified as normal, sarcopenic, obese, or sarcopenic-obese based on measures of WC and either muscle mass or strength. Participants were followed for 8 years for CVD development and proportional hazard regression models were used to compare risk estimates for CVD in the four groups after adjusting for age, sex, race, income, smoking, alcohol, and cognitive status. Compared with the normal group, CVD risk was not significantly elevated within the obese, sarcopenic, or sarcopenic-obese groups as determined by WC and muscle mass. When determined by WC and muscle strength, CVD risk was not significantly increased in the sarcopenic or obese groups, but was increased by 23% (95% confidence interval: 0.99-1.54, P=0.06) within the sarcopenic-obese group. Sarcopenia and obesity alone were not sufficient to increase CVD risk. Sarcopenic-obesity, based on muscle strength but not muscle mass, was modestly associated with increased CVD risk. These findings imply that strength may be more important than muscle mass for CVD protection in old age.

Distributional Impacts of Pension Policy in Argentina

Historically speaking, social security systems are a recent development. At the beginning of the twentieth century, there was limited state social intervention in the developed world, and even less in Latin America. A remarkable expansion of “social rights” took place in the second half of the century. By the 1970s most Latin American countries had set up at least some form of old-age protection, while others had already developed a wide welfare network. Public social expenditures grew to represent over 20 percent of the gross domestic product in a number of countries, including Argentina.

Post-Socialist Pension Reform: Contributory and Non-Contributory Approaches

The pension reforms that were enacted in Central-Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union in the past decade reflect considerable diversity, but share one common feature: a move from a universalist-redistributive heritage to strongly differentiated, earnings-related benefits, with an emphasis on contributory financing. the differences in level and scope of old-age protection are widening, however, as plummeting formal employment translates into sharply decreasing coverage ratios. Thus, the importance of the existing non-contributory benefits for the elderly, that currently play a relatively marginal role in the post-socialist world, may soon be increasing.

Pension systems in the European Union and aspects of socio-economic change

The European Union has different traditions concerning the main concept of social security in general, and of retirement and pension benefits. Different political decisions dictate the range of personal coverage, how benefits are calculated and how the systems are financed. Within this paper, the author will try to distinguish the different types of core systems and will present a rough grouping of twelve national systems. The systems that provide social protection in old age have entered a period of massive socioeconomic change. This includes changes in the structure of employment, and of family life. At the same time, most European countries have become countries of immigration. The author does not intend to make a detailed analysis of these changes themselves, but rather to select elements of them, and examine different types of old age security systems within these changes.

Financing the statutory pensions insurance scheme in a united Germany

This article outlines the development of the predominant scheme of old-age protection in Germany (the statutory pensions insurance scheme) within the framework of the process of unifying the two post-war German states. The systems of old-age protection in West and East Germany had evolved very differently after the Second World War, so that a major transformation was needed. The various stages of bringing the schemes together are described, including the conversion of pensions in the German Democratic Republic when the Deutschmark was introduced on 1 July 1990, the raising of pensions, and the considerable further adjustments that took place later. Finally, the process of applying West German pensions legislation to East Germany is described. This legislation resulted from a Pensions Reform Act which was adopted on 9 November 1989 with the purpose of adapting the system of old-age protection to changing structural conditions affecting the composition of the population, the economy and society as a whole. The article is completed by a look at the evolution of the financial requirements for pensions insurance over the medium and long term.

Current issues in old‐age protection in New Zealand1

International Social Security ReviewVolume 39, Issue 2 p. 201-215 Current issues in old-age protection in New Zealand1 John B. Gourley, John B. Gourley Assistant Director General, Benefits and Pensions Department, Department of Social Welfare (New Zealand)Search for more papers by this author John B. Gourley, John B. Gourley Assistant Director General, Benefits and Pensions Department, Department of Social Welfare (New Zealand)Search for more papers by this author First published: April 1986 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-246X.1986.tb00629.x 1 This article is the revised version of a paper presented to the Seventh ISSA Regional Conference for Asia and Oceania, held in Kuala Lumpur, 4–8 November 1985. Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Volume39, Issue2April 1986Pages 201-215 RelatedInformation