Practical Applications of Improving Pension Income and Reducing Poverty at Advanced Older Ages: Longevity Insurance Benefits in Ireland and Poland as Models for the United States

Practical Applications Summary

Elderly poverty has been a vexing challenge for U.S. policymakers for years. As people age, they face a myriad of financial challenges, such as the cost of caring for an ill spouse, that can erode the nest eggs they spent decades building. As a result, the poverty rate for people 75 and older is higher than for people aged 65 and older. Ireland and Poland have addressed the problem by providing financial help to people aged 75 and older and aged 80 and older, respectively. As a result, both countries have poverty rates among citizens aged 75 and older that are equal to or lower than poverty rates for persons aged 65 and older.

In Improving Pension Income and Reducing Poverty at Advanced Older Ages: Longevity Insurance Benefits in Ireland and Poland as Models for the United States, which appeared in the Winter 2017 issue of The Journal of Retirement, John Turner, director of the Pension Policy Center, Gerard Hughes of Ireland's Trinity Business School, Agnieszka Chłoń-Domińczak of the Warsaw School of Economics, and David M. Raines of the U.S. Social Security Administration, examined the approaches taken by Ireland and Poland to combat elderly poverty and considered how those approaches might be applicable to the U.S. and Canada.

TOPICS: Social security, developed markets, legal/regulatory/public policy