Welfare Reform on the Web (November 2004): Pensions - Overseas

EVALUATING THE INITIAL IMPACT OF ELIMINATING THE RETIREMENT EARNINGS TEST

J.G. Song

Social Security Bulletin, Vol. 65, No. 1, 2003/04, p.3-15

Under the retirement earnings test, retirement pension benefits in the US are reduced if earnings exceed specified amounts. The Senior Citizens Freedom to Work Act 2000 removed the retirement earnings test for beneficiaries who had reached full retirement age. The study explores the response of workers aged 65-69 to the removal of the test. Results show that higher earners in this group increased their earnings, while lower earners did not. There has been an acceleration of benefit applications by workers aged 65-59, but no clear evidence of increased employment in this age group.

PENSIONS: CHALLENGES AND REFORMS

E. Overbye and P.A. Kemp

Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004

Throughout the developed world, public and private pension schemes face major challenges that are creating irresistible pressures for reform:

• major structural changes in Latin America and in Central and Eastern Europe have led to particularly fierce pressure;
• two member states of the European Union - Italy and Sweden - have introduced radical reform of their public pensions systems;
• controversial pension reforms have been proposed in France and Germany;
• the British government has been widely criticized over its pension reforms and its 2002 white paper.

This volume examines the challenges faced by pension in the advanced economies and the reforms that have been introduced to tackle these challenges. The book incorporates cross-national chapters as well as a focus on individual countries including Belgium, Brazil, Columbia, Finland, Greece, Italy, Sweden, the UK, and the USA.