Public Pension And Pension Reform

The City of Houston pension systems are at a crossroads. The recession has brought pension funding practices into the bureaucratic limelight due to the proliferating scrutiny and tightening of the local finances. Pension reform has been spurred by ballooning cost projections and an estimate $2.7 trillion nationwide funding gap (Johnson, Chingos & Whitehurst, 2013). Reforming the insufficient pension system has suggested for most citizens from taxpayers who want to reduce the expense down and yet still receive a great quality of firefighters, police officer, and public services who want to preserve their retirement security. The recent Detroit bankruptcy ruling has left a sobering precedent that pension promises are not sacrosanct, but could possibly renege on if a local government falls too far behind its funding obligations (Bomey 2013). The wide ranges of public sector pensions are considering benefit plans. In these kind of plan, when an employee reaches a specified age or years of service, he or she in entitled to a set amount of benefits each year from retirement until decease. The benefit amount of a retiree

California has 62 state and locally managed public retirement pension arrangements. According to Nava and Christensen (2015), the Public Employees’ Pension Reform Act that was implemented into law on January 1, 2013, covers the state’s two largest pension systems. They include the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) and the California State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS). It also covers the 20 county systems that are under the 1937 Act County Employees Retirement Law (CERL). The Act changes the manner in which CalPERS, CalSTRS, and CERL retirement and health benefits are applied, and places compensation restrictions on members (Nava & Christensen, 2015). PEPRA’s purpose was to establish a cap on the amount of compensation that can be used to determine a retirement benefit for all new members of a public retirement system. The cap should be equal to the Social Security wage index limit, that is, $110,100 for workers involved in Social Security, or 120% of that limit, which is $132,120 if the employees do not participate in social security (Nava & Christensen, 2015). PEPRA’s provisions apply to new staff and new members of CalPERS, CalSTRS, and the 20 CERL plans. According to the Act, a new employee is a worker of a public business who was not employed by any other public employer before

Many are skeptical about the future of Social Security and are worried they will not receive the full pay out of benefits in the future. In the following pages I will state the reasons why Social Security is in need of reform, describe privatization and the pros and cons, and why privatization is the best option for Social Security reform.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the creation of the Ontario Retirement Pension Plan and to argue that it is a necessary and potentially effective way to ensure that workers in the private sector in Ontario will be able to retire and live comfortably. This conclusion is not made lightly as it is import to view any broadening of government influence through the most critical of lenses. However, there is an increasing need for Ontarians to save for retirement and it is becoming more and more apparent that private pension plans will not be able to meet the needs of most people. This is because too few people have private pensions and the once that do exist sit on volatile ground.

On August 17, 2006 the Pension Protection Act of 2006 (the Act) was signed into law. The Pension Protection Act ("PPA") [P.L. 109-280] originated as a single-employer defined benefit pension funding reform bill to strengthen the DB pension system. However, it is best known for the number of provisions to enhance 401(k) and 403(k) plans, especially the auto enrollment feature. Among other noteworthy provisions are those intended to remove legal obstacles to, and create new incentives for, automatic enrollment 401(k) and 403(b) plans. It represents one of the most comprehensive pension reform legislation since ERISA was enacted in 1974. The Act has lead to many companies changing the way their plans are designed and administered, amend plan documents, increase plan funding, and make additional plan disclosures in regulatory filings and to plan participants. The Act made many sweeping changes but for the sake of brevity, only the automatic enrollment plan made by employers on the behalf of its employees is addressed in this report as to the rationale behind the passage of the PPA. Even though the provisions generally apply both to 401(k) and 403(b) plans, for explanatory purposes all references will refer only to 401(k) plans.

The twelve-member board consisted of 2 Community Business Representatives, 5 Union Officials, 3 researchers, Rhode Island Department of Administration director and the Mayor of Cranston (Randazzo, 2013). The Advisory Board purpose was to gather information and generate a report for the General Assembly special hearing (Randazzo, 2013). The board met consistently for two months to review solutions to the pension crisis and actively listen to the public, pensioners, and state workers for feedback on ways to resolve the ERSRI problems (Randazzo, 2013).

The discussion in regards to the Ontario Retirement Pension Plan can be one with much debate. Some would argue that what they would receive will not be enough in their savings to live off of, paired with ORPP. 1 Employees between the ages of 18 and 70, with the amendment from 18 to 19, are expected to make a contribution towards ORPP, but are only able to begin collecting their benefits once they have reached the age of 65. 2 The Canadian Ministry of Finance has conducted studies on ORPP, where it has been proven that ORPP is not enough to live off of, besides savings that have been accumulated over the years. While the ORPP is not a tax, the funds that are collected and further invested will be exclusively used for member 's

Hoffman, M. R., & McKenzie, K. S. (2014). The Reality of Social Security: If Reform Doesn't Happen, What Must Each of Us Do?. Journal Of Accounting & Finance (2158-3625), 14(2), 124-134.

Expansion of privatization can be used to save money. President George W. Bush wanted to privatize Social Security, President Obama wants to privatize the military, and on the state level former Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal privatized Medicaid. Everything is about money.

Social Security is now the largest government program in the world as it accounts for 24% of total US federal spending. Since 2010, its money has been depleting due to paying out more benefits than it collects in taxes. A proposed solution is switching over to a Private Pension system, which has workers managing their own retirement funds through personal investment accounts. While some countries have adopted this system, I believe it benefits us to keep the current Social Security system and not replace it with a Private Pension one.

Pensions help us live with an income as we get older and have retired. “A pension plan is a financial arrangement that allows individuals to continue receiving some type of regular income even after they are no longer active in the workforce.” (1) Most of the pension options out there are used when you retire however there are certain instances where you can collect a pension before retirement due to a disability. Pension plans are also interchangeable with retirement plans they are basically the same thing. Pensions are based on years of service and what has been put into them both by the employee and the employer over the years of service. There are also pensions offered by government so it is possible to

Pension Fund is a fund that is accumulated from employees contributions, or employers contributions, or both and hence forth employees benefit from the pension paid from thereafter, upon retirement or termination from duty. In Tanzania, the pension fund is managed by the social security system, under the Social Security Regulatory Authority (SSRA) Act, 2008; aimed at regulating the social security sector and to provide for related matters that might arise. The act applies only for Tanzania Mainland; and in that regard, this paper shall only take the Tanzania Mainland pension schemes into reference.

The Social Security System is in need of a new reform; our current system was not designed for the age stratification we have at this time. The U.S. Social Security Administration Office of Policy states, “The original Social Security Act, signed into law on August 14, 1935, grew out of the work of the Committee on Economic Security, a cabinet-level group appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt just one year earlier. The Act created several programs that, even today, form the basis for the government's role in providing income security, specifically, the old-age insurance, unemployment insurance, and Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) programs.” Social Security was modeled to aid the elderly citizens, however during the

Recent changes to pension legislation, which are said to stem from years of debate and studies that are striving for promotion of involvement of individuals when handling their pension funds by incentivising savings.

This poses a challenge as it is reported that 55%, £114bn in 2014/15, of the welfare spending is paid out to pensioners.[] As seen in the chart above, it is due to further increase and will put more pressure on the public finances – finances whose strain will fall on the shoulders of small working-age population.