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Pension Adequacy Essay

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Pension adequacy is predominantly assessed by its ability to ‘prevent poverty, to replace earnings of pensioners before retirement and to ensure a living standard on par with the younger population.’ The objective of a pension policy is to offer retirees an income that enables them to have a reasonable ‘living standard and protect them from the risk of poverty and deprivation.’ During retirement, the majority of the older population depend on pensions to act as their main source of income in addition to any pre-retirement savings (for example, income from assets such as a home.) [10]

The extensively used measure of pension adequacy consists of comparing retirement income to income of other age groups. Table 1 in the Appendix displays the median …show more content…

The figure shows that the life expectancies have improved dramatically from 1925 and 1975 for the younger population, although advancement in healthcare did not make much of an effect on the elderly population during that time. Meanwhile at age 90, the probability of survival increased significantly to about 20% in 2010 and will continue to rise due to improvements in medicine. Although current evidence confirms that the population today are living longer, many are doing so in reduced health. Report shows that the population aged 65 and over struggle to manage their day-to-day activities without assistance. Health life expectancy considers mortality rates as well as the effect of nonfatal conditions. Research shows that increase in healthy life expectancy has been insignificant in comparison to the rise in life expectancy, and as a result, the population are living longer but with illness and disability. High costs of medical care therefore also reduce the income of the elderly to meet other necessities such as food and shelter. In addition to poverty, the older population is faced by the threat of losing independence, financial or

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