February 2020

14Feb

Ireland. Hundreds of community employment scheme supervisors to strike

Hundreds of community employment (CE) scheme supervisors are to hold a one-day strike on Friday over access to a pension scheme. The supervisors will join with staff working in organisations providing health and social care services that receive State grant-aid (known as section 39 bodies) at a protest to be held in Dublin on Friday. In addition, section 39 workers are scheduled to take industrial action on February 21st in a dispute over pay restoration. The rally is being...

February 14, 2020
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13Feb

U.K. Moves to Require Pensions to Disclose Climate Change Plans

British pension funds may soon need to explain how they are fighting climate change under a global framework as the U.K. aims to reach carbon neutrality by 2050. The U.K.’s Department for Work and Pensions said Wednesday that it proposed an amendment to the Pension Schemes Bill that would require pensions to disclose their climate change strategies under the Taskforce on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures, a voluntary framework that is widely used by companies. Also Read UK. Government mulls tax...

February 13, 2020
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13Feb

A low birth rate and a rapidly ageing population: Europe’s demographic crisis explained

Europe's population is getting older. Between now and 2030, most EU countries will see the number of workers over 50 increase to 55% of their overall labour force. The European Commission forecasts that spending on healthcare for older people and pensions (currently 25% of GDP in the EU), will rise 2.3 percentage points by 2040. The demographic challenges vary across the EU. Portugal, Greece, Italy and Spain are among the top-10 countries in the world with the lowest fertility...

February 13, 2020
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12Feb

ABP: accelerating sustainability with investments

Dutch pension fund Stichting Pensioenfonds ABP has expressed a desire to break away from ‘dirty’ investments and focus on sustainability instead. In a press release on the company’s website, ABP set out its goal to reduce its investment portfolio in high CO2 emitting industries (coal mines and tar sands) by 40% by 2025. Concurrently, the company intends to invest €15bn in sustainable energy instead. With an overall strategy aimed at gradually weaning off companies that use fossil fuels to...

February 12, 2020
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12Feb

UK. State pension warning: Retirement age set to increase even further in just two years

The state pension age for men and women is currently 65 but will increase to 66 by October 2020. The pension age will then rise to 67 between 2026 and 2028. However, it is “likely” the age will increase further as the Government will review the system from 2023. Speaking to Express.co.uk, Age UK policy expert, Sally West said: “The legislation has been passed to increase the state pension from 66 later this year. “There’s also a law that’s...

February 12, 2020
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11Feb

UK. Government mulls tax raid on top earners’ pensions

According to the Financial Times, chancellor Sajid Javid is weighing up cutting tax relief on pension contributions for higher earners as a way of raising revenue for the state. Under the current system, individuals receive tax relief on their personal contributions at the same rate as their marginal income tax rate. However, the FT reports Javid may cut pension tax relief for higher earners from 40% to 20%, raising more than £10bn extra a year for the state. Inheritance...

February 11, 2020
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10Feb

UK. Only six out of 10 pensions to appear on new ‘dashboards’

Savers hoping to use new “pension dashboard” services to track their retirement savings will only be able to see six out of 10 accounts due to poor data quality, according to a new analysis. Dashboard services are expected to be launched in the UK later this year, giving savers the ability to see all their pension pots — and their combined value — in one online hub for the first time. A new analysis suggests they will offer...

February 10, 2020
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07Feb

Pensions and Household Savings: Cross-Country Heterogeneity in Europe

By Anna d’Addio, Muriel Roger, Frederique Savignac We address the question of whether the heterogeneity in savings is partly due to differences in pension wealth across individuals and across countries, using a European harmonised wealth survey (HFCS) combined with estimates of pension wealth (OECD). First, we find significant displacement effects of mandatory pension wealth on non-pension financial wealth at the mean, and a statistically significant crowd-out estimate on the probability of owning real estate property. Second, there is heterogeneity...

February 7, 2020
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06Feb

Greek public sector workers to strike over pension bill on Feb. 18

The civil servants’ union ADEDY has called a 24-hour strike for February 18 in protest at the conservative government’s legislation on pensions which is to go before a vote in Parliament this month. According to ADEDY, the bill perpetuates austerity measures introduced by governments during the crisis years, including auxiliary pension cuts of up to 50 percent. The union is calling for the revocation of all pension cuts imposed during the country’s financial crisis, the return of the so-called...

February 6, 2020
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06Feb

French strikes pass two-month mark with protest planned for Paris

French unions have called for another national day of protest against the government’s pension reform plan on Thursday - the day the plans come before the French parliament. But, two months in to the social movement, the level of disruption was expected to be low compared to what the country saw in the early days of the social movement. Transport is running almost as normal across the country - even in Paris, which was the area hardest hit by...

February 6, 2020
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