Over older and healthy retirees?
To defend themselves from an age of retirement that is retreating, the governments in place in Europe often stand out the same idea: “People live longer, they must work longer.” But it doesn’t always hold the road. Because if life expectancy increases, that “in good health”, it does not necessarily follow. And that’s where it gets stuck. In more than half of the Member States, people retire at an age where they have, statistically, already started to have health problems.
But the real problem is that with a population that ages, the pension funds must hold on. No more pensioners means more expenses. And so, more contributors are needed. But as active generations are fewer and fewer, reforms are pushing to work longer to balance everything.
A sex affair
In some countries, as in Austria or Germany, women can leave a little earlier. But it is not a “gift”: it is often linked to more fragmented careers, weaker wages and a longer life expectancy. In addition, in several countries, women remain mainly responsible for domestic and family tasks, which influences their health at the end of their careers.
And yet, only six European countries offer an age of differentiated starting by sex. In the majority of cases, men and women retire at the same age … without the differences in routes or arduousness being taken into account.
Regarding the amount of the pension; The Belgians do well (on paper)
Let’s talk little, let’s talk about numbers. The Belgians work more, okay. But does it pay? To find out, it is not enough to look at the amounts in euros. Because 1000 € in Belgium is not worth the same as in Portugal or Denmark. This is where the PPS comes in. Basically, it is a unit that makes it possible to compare what a pension from one country to another is really worth, once you have corrected price differences.
And with this comparison, we notice that Lla Belgium is doing quite well. The average standard of living of Belgian retirees remains higher than in many other European countries.
Why are some pensions so weak?
At the bottom of the ranking, there are several countries of Eastern Europe such as Slovakia, Romania or Croatia. In these countries, pensions do not exceed 1000 pps. For what ? First, because average wages are lower, and social contributions, often, too.
Then, the systems are sometimes more recent or less protective, with a large share of private capitalization, which depends on the market. This gives as a result that retirees sometimes struggle to complete their month, even after a working life.
Everything you need to know about pension in Europe in our interactive card
In which country we go earlier or later retirement than in Belgium? In which country the amount of the pension is really comfortable? Difficult to respond without taking into account all the parameters: the actual starting age, the actual amount of pensions, life expectancy … The differences between countries are sometimes enormous.
To better understand where Belgium is located in this European landscape, our interactive map at the bottom of the article can be useful.
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