Aiming for comfortable retirement
Lower birth rates and a rapidly ageing population may result in a pension crisis for Europe for years to come. In parallel, citizens are not saving enough for retirement, posing a worrying challenge for the EU and its policymakers. In response, the EU-funded project 'Adequacy of old-age income maintenance in the EU' (AIM) worked on developing new strategies to evaluate pension systems and their sustainability. In specific terms, it conducted research involving complex simulations and examined these models' properties to ensure accuracy, in addition to investigating the adequacy of recently developed pension plans and policies. The project examined different social welfare models using statistical and econometric exercises in order to assess the degree of convergence towards a sustainable European social model. The research was crucial in classifying pension systems, evaluating their adequacy and understanding the degree of sustainability. It covered many key topics such as pension reforms and public opinion, pension reforms and the labour market, poverty and social inclusion of the elderly, maintaining living standards, and others. By closely examining the various components of retirement policies, from socioeconomic aspects to specific reform options, the project was able to produce a set of recommendations to address these realities. AIM produced a report that underlined the threat to pension incomes due to demographic developments. More importantly, it underlined the range of reform options for policymakers to ensure adequate incomes of the elderly and open the road to a more secure future.
