Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Australian retirement income policy'

Doctor of Philosophy(PhD)
Retirement income policy in Australia has undergone significant changes over the last two decades, including the introduction of the Superannuation Guarantee [SG] with mandatory contributions in 1992 and the 2007 superannuation changes with the benefit tax abolition. Numerical implications of adopted pension reforms and reform proposals such as further increases in the SG contribution rate, changes to superannuation taxation and to means-testing of the age pension have been examined mainly by micro-simulation models. These models, often criticized for their lack of theoretical content, provide an incomplete picture of pension policy effects because of no or limited behavioural responses to underlying policy changes. In this thesis, models based on the life-cycle theory of saving pioneered by Modigliani and Brumberg (1954) are applied to simulate behavioural, welfare and macroeconomics effects of proposed changes to Australia’s pension policy. In particular, this thesis develops the following computable models: a life-cycle, single household model, a partial equilibrium, household model and a general equilibrium model with overlapping generations [OLG]. The single household model describes lifetime behaviour of the utility-maximising single household with uncertain lifespan. The model features perfect capital markets, endogenous labour supply and retirement decisions, and it incorporates main aspects of Australia’s pension and income tax policy settings. The simulated policy changes are (i) increase in the SG contribution rate, (ii) superannuation tax changes and (iii) abolition of the age pension means test. The results indicate higher retirement consumption and welfare gains from all the analysed pension policy changes. Partial equilibrium and general equilibrium models introduced in this thesis are built on lifetime behaviour of the single household. Both models distinguish many generations of households by age and, therefore, are capable of studying behavioural and welfare effects of policy changes for different generations. The partial equilibrium model examines behaviour of the household sector in the environment of the fixed factor prices. It is shown, for instance, that welfare gains from the investigated pension policy changes are not uniformly distributed across generations. The general equilibrium OLG model extends the partial equilibrium analyses by incorporating production, government and foreign sectors in addition to household and pension sectors. The model is a small open economy version of Auerbach and Kotlikoff’s (1987) OLG model. The simulation results are significantly different from those in the partial equilibrium framework, driven mainly by the changes in aggregate labour supply. For instance, the higher SG rate policy increases aggregate assets and saving. However, the saving increases are exported abroad rather than invested in the domestic capital stock. Hence, the implications of this policy change for the capital stock and output are minimal. Younger cohorts and future born generations experience consumption and welfare gains but older cohorts are negatively affected by a higher consumption tax rate resulting from this hypothetical policy change.

With an increasing proportion of older people in the Australian population and increasing health and longevity, paid work after the age of 65 years may become an option or a necessity in the future. The focus of this research is on Australian women of the baby boom generation, their working futures, and the work-retirement decision. This is explored both from the viewpoint of women and from a social policy perspective. The research draws on Considine�s model of public policy, futures studies, and Beck�s concept of risk society. The research comprises three studies. Using focus group research, Study 1 explored the views of Australian women of the baby boom generation on work after the age of 65 years. Study 2 aimed to explore current thinking on the research topic in Australia and overseas. Computer-mediated communication involving an Internet website and four scenarios for the year 2020 were used for this study. Study 3 consists of the analysis of quantitative data from the Healthy Retirement Project, focusing on attitudes towards retirement, retirement plans, and the preferred and expected age of retirement. The importance of choice and a work � life balance emerged throughout the research. Women in high-status occupations were found to be more likely to be open to the option of continuing paid work beyond age 65 than women in low-status jobs. However, the women were equally likely to embrace future volunteering. The research findings suggest that policies for an ageing female workforce should be based on the values of inclusiveness, fairness, self-determination, and social justice, and address issues of workplace flexibility, equality in the workplace, recognition for unpaid community and caring work, opportunities for life-long learning, complexity and inequities of the superannuation system, and planning for retirement. Further, providing a guaranteed minimum income for all Australians should be explored as a viable alternative to the current social security system.

This thesis analyses the effects of current and proposed pension policies for the UK, and critically assesses the arguments for different forms of intervention. It aims to contribute to the pension reform debate in four main ways. First, it presents an original typology of four 'ideal type' pension systems - targeting, basic income, social insurance and compulsory saving - which allows the plethora of different reform proposals to be grouped into manageable bundles, and brings out the key choices facing pension reformers. Second, it aims to make the debate better informed by providing estimates of future pensioner incomes and fiscal sustainability using the relatively new techniques of dynamic microsimulation and generational accounting. In particular, an extended version of the dynamic model PENSIM is used to project pensioner incomes in 2066. Third, it provides an assessment of one particular pension reform - the replacement of the State Earnings-Related Pension Scheme by a new State Second Pension - through describing the rationale for and effects of the new scheme. Finally, it adds to broader theoretical debates about the rationale for, and effectiveness of, different forms of retirement income provision, supplementing the economics and social policy literatures on the role (if any) for compulsory earnings-related pensions and the trade-off between incentives and redistribution. The analysis shows that the UK is an exceptional case. In contrast to most developed countries distributional concerns rather than cost dominate. The government's reforms will do relatively little to improve these distributional outcomes. This reflects the fact that, although the government (correctly) reject compulsorily linking benefits to earnings, connections between entitlements and contributions have not been severed entirely. This thesis argues that it is this linkage which undermines current policy, and that future reforms should move away from the idea of pensions as insurance towards a more rights-based approach.

Existing studies provide a range of insights into the causes of womens low retirement incomes and emphasise the effect of low life-time incomes on womens access to economic resources in later life. Despite these insights, however, there is relatively little research on the roles played by motivations, social institutions and decision-making processes in determining womens capacity to save for retirement. In order to address some of these gaps in our understanding, this study aimed to broaden the range of theoretical approaches applied to economic studies of womens retirement savings strategies. Based on methodological perspectives informed by critical realism and feminist epistemology, the study utilised grounded research methods to collect and analyse qualitative data relevant to womens financial decisions and retirement plans. The data collection and analysis process are conceptually organised and integrated to propose a theoretical contribution that emphasises the links between social structures and specific decision-making processes that systematically contribute to low retirement savings for women. The studys findings are discussed with reference to existing economic literature that has not previously been utilised in studies of womens retirement incomes. The conclusions from this study suggest that there are significant features of womens decision-making contexts that contribute to ongoing under-saving to support women in later life.

Many South Africans may not have adequate retirement savings when they retire and this has the effect of a low income replacement ratio on retirement that may lead to a decrease in the standard of living of the retiree and in extreme cases the retiree becoming dependent on their family and the government. Owing to this trend of no or inadequate retirement savings, South Africa embarked on a retirement reform journey in 2004. The goal of this research is to determine whether the retirement reform mechanisms outlined by National Treasury would encourage individual retirement savings that should assist South Africans to achieve stability of income in their retirement. This research analysed the current retirement savings options and vehicles available for South Africans, the current tax incentives and disincentives and reviewed the proposed changes to tax incentives and disincentives during the accumulation phase of retirement savings and explained how these proposed tax incentives are harmonised for the accumulation phase of retirement. The research explained how National Treasury aims to limit pre-retirement withdrawals and how it intends to encourage the annuitisation of post-retirement benefits. The penultimate chapter of this research measured the effect (by making certain assumptions) of the changes proposed by National Treasury on the income replacement ratio of the retiree. Throughout the research comparisons were made between The OECD Roadmap for the good design of defined contribution pension plans and National Treasury’s proposals. This research did not directly address the effect of increased life expectancies on retirement savings or increases in youth unemployment and the effect that this may have on retirement savings. The effect of financial charges levied on retirement savings on the income replacement ratio of a retiree was also not explored. Furthermore, not all pension funds are regulated by the Pension Funds Act and how these pension funds can be brought within the purview of the Pension Funds Act was not investigated. Automatic enrolment of retirement savings for all employees in South Africa in retirement vehicles is a further research area that could be addressed.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
A significant new direction in Australian income support policy was introduced in 2002. Known as Australians Working Together, this development changed the basis of social security entitlement for parents. Throughout most of the twentieth century, low-income sole mothers, and later sole fathers and parents in couple families, could claim income support throughout most of their children’s school years. The primary grounds for their entitlement were low income and parenting responsibilities. Australians Working Together introduced compulsory employment-oriented activities to Parenting Payment entitlement for parents whose youngest child had turned 13. This thesis investigates mothers’ experience of this new welfare system. Using Dorothy Smith’s ‘everyday life’ approach to research, it draws upon qualitative and quantitative methods to analyse Australians Working Together. The research is grounded in a longitudinal interview survey of Australian mothers of teenage children who were subject to these changes. The analysis moves from their experience outwards through the four levels of analysis in Williams and Popay’s welfare research framework. The thesis examines mothers’ day-to-day worlds, the opportunities and constraints they navigate, the policies and institutions which shape their opportunities, the political framing of those policies, and wider social and economic transformations. In their negotiation of the social security system, mothers are striving for recognition of autonomy and care. They want their capacity to determine for themselves how to live their lives to be acknowledged. They would like the social contributions they make through employment, education and voluntary work to be recognised. They struggle for their unpaid work caring for their families to be valued. They wish that they had sufficient material resources to care well for their families. The thesis develops a theoretical framework to examine these struggles drawing on the work of Honneth, Fraser, Lister, Sennett, Fisher and Tronto, Daly and Lewis. This multi-level, everyday life analysis reveals the possibility of reframing the social security system around mutual respect.

Thesis (LLM. (Development and Management Law)) -- University of Limpopo, 2013
This mini-dissertation discusses South African social security and retirement reforms that will be used as guidelines towards promulgation of the new Pension Funds Act which will incorporate both private and public pensions. These proposals have been highlighted in the Retirement Reform Discussion Paper issued by National Treasury in 2004 and the Social Security and Retirement Reform paper, issued by both National Treasury and Department of Social Development, 2007. Further, the recent discussion papers entitled ‘Strengthening Retirement Savings and a Safer Financial Sector to Serve South Africa Better’ published in 2011 and 2012 respectively have strengthened social security and retirement reforms debate in South Africa. This mini-dissertation will incorporate both social security and retirement reforms.

The diploma thesis focuses on the present-day system of social security in the Czech Republic. The pension system is analyzed in detail and compared to systems in other countries. It shows the differences among all the various ways of financing the pension systems and the columns it is supported by, also listing all the reasons for the reform of the pension system in our country.

Gendered poverty among the elderly is a statistical fact. Previous studies have identified inequitable treatment of women and insufficient income for unattached elderly women among the most serious shortcomings of the retirement income system. Despite pension reform over the past decade, the gender gap has widened for elderly Canadians whose incomes fall below the poverty line. This thesis seeks to understand the relationship between the laws that govern Canada's retirement income system and the over-representation of elderly women among Canada's poor, and to explore why the retirement income system continues to deliver benefits in a manner that, though expressed in gender neutral language, is systemically unfair to women. The benefits of Canada's retirement income system may be accessed through workforce participation and, in a more limited way, through a spousal relationship. Familial ideology is used as the theoretical framework to examine the role of the laws that govern access to benefits in reinforcing and perpetuating assumptions about women that undermine their economic autonomy. This examination reveals that gendered economic inequality is embedded within Canada's retirement income system because it accepts the social and economic construction implicit in familial ideology of women as economically subordinate to, and dependent upon, men. The relationship between gender inequality and the two modes of delivery of retirement income benefits, during retirement as pension benefits and prior to retirement as tax subsidies that enhance taxpayers' opportunities to accumulate retirement savings, is also explored. A tax expenditure analysis exposes the bias against the economically disadvantaged (mostly women) inherent in delivering benefits as tax subsidies. Additionally, familial, public/private and restructuring ideologies are used as methodological tools to interrogate the reform process which, although ignoring gender issues, paradoxically deepened and compounded the systemic inequalities for women that existed prior to reform. The thesis concludes by offering suggestions for developing a progressive agenda for advancing gender equality within the retirement income system. The limitations of legal action as a strategy for implementing this type of agenda are discussed, and political action is designated as the most promising strategy for achieving progressive reform.

New information has an important role in asset price movement. This paper investigates the role of scheduled domestic news releases on the Australian government bond market. Specifically, it examines the impact of pre-announced macroeconomic news release on bond futures markets and associated market volatility. Furthermore, an EGARCH-in-mean model is used to determine the asymmetric response of the conditional volatility to either news release or unexpected changes of some news content. The results indicate that excess return of bond futures in the research period was leptokurtic (fat-tailed) with time-varying conditional heteroscedasticity. Day of the week volatility was also present but with a declining pace. It’s generally attributed to the release dates of announcements and information flow from offshore markets. Although announcement effects to the bond futures market were significant, they depended on the type of maturity. Finally, results from EGARCH indicate that fundamental lagging indicators such as CPI and GDP are always important in explaining the impact of news release on market volatility, whereas the unemployment rate has a reasonable role in announcement surprises. The data suggest the following conclusion: investors are seriously concerned with news releases on macroeconomic variables they can feasibly forecast because they are always fundamental and provide a partial indication of the future economy. Surprises from news content are also critical to investors because some important variables can only be forecasted with limited accuracy. Therefore, deviation from anticipated outcomes in the actual content also causes significant market movement.
Thesis(M.Comm.)-- School of Commerce, 2007.

Approximately one-half of Americans participate in a pension plan offered by their employers and subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA). Yet ERISA is frequently ignored by social scientists researching retirement income because of its complexity. Given the enormous amount of foregone tax revenues that support private pensions, the motivating question of my dissertation is: How did the American state change as Congress delegated power over American pension plans to private employers? I argue that a weak system of bureaucratic oversight and the federal courts' deference to pension administrators allowed fiduciaries to control policy implementation and assume a role traditionally reserved for the state - blurring the line between public and private. My purpose here is to provide an analytical history of ERISA that explores its methods of delegating both policymaking control over and the detailed nuances of administration of private pension plans to private actors. I explore the concept of fiduciary status as a safeguard when government outsources the implementation of policy to private actors. Regardless of whether fiduciary standards have ensured sufficient accountability in the ERISA context - and I find that they have not - I argue that the potential is there and analyze where ERISA went wrong.

Thesis (LLM.) -- University of Limpopo, 2017
This dissertation deals with the inception of the office of the Pension Fund Adjudicator in South Africa with comparison with the United Kingdom and Australia. The challenges faced by the office of the Pension Fund Adjudicator are one element that advised the composition of this dissertation. South Africa is a well developing country that carries well developed laws, including, the laws that deals with the pension fund complaints and this dissertation shall analyse and unpack those laws and principles that deals with the pension fund complaints.