Welfare Reform on the Web (December 2005): Pensions - Overseas

EU developments and their impact on HR issues

L. Sforza

Pensions, vol. 10, 2005, p.336-342

From a personnel management / business vantage, this paper looks at recent and future EU policy developments in pensions, corporate governance and work force mobility, offering opinion on likely impacts for markets and regulatory frameworks.

Internationalisation of pension funds: incentives and future patterns

A. Slager and P. Kraneveld

Pensions, vol. 10, 2005, p.357-366

This paper aims to explore the incentives for pension funds to internationalise within the European Union. It identifies the functions of a pension fund that will probably remain domestic and those that are sensitive to internationalisation. It explores motives and different stages and organisational forms of internationalisation, and speculates on likely future approaches.

Pensions to continue slide down Euro-table

R. Murray-West

Daily Telegraph, November 24th 2005, p. 10

Research by Aon Consulting ranks UK pension provision above Germany, Italy and France but below Ireland, Holland, Denmark and Sweden. However it is predicted that the UK will slip steadily down the European rankings as occupational schemes decline and the state pension becomes increasingly inadequate.

Reforming a breadwinner welfare state: gender, race, class and social security reform

P. Herd

Social Forces, vol.83, 2005, p.1365-1394

Most western welfare states offer effective income protection to men who have worked consistently over 30 years and women who have stayed at home to raise children. The US social security system is an excellent example. It protects people with lengthy work histories and women who get married, stay married, and are never employed. Most women fit neither model. While they work more than their mothers, their child-rearing responsibilities mean that their work records are patchy. Author analyses two approaches to reform. Firstly, woman-friendly approaches offer benefit improvements to mothers and divorced women. Secondly, social democratic approaches offer a universal income guarantee. Results show that benefits disconnected from marital status, such as parent benefits and minimum income guarantees are most effective in protecting women from the new risks that they face.