Part Three - In focus: Pensions and old age

Summary

With falling stock markets, lower interest rates, frequent media coverage of the pensions ‘crisis’ and the value of pensions declining, the ‘pensions issue’ is very much on the agenda. The chapters in this section consider pensions and ageing from a range of different perspectives including labour market and comparative dimensions, New Labour's pensions settlement, questions of agency and social structure, and pension sharing from a gendered perspective.

Giuliano Bonoli and Benoît Gay-des-Combes begin the section with a review of the pension reforms adopted in 8 Western European countries which have been instituted by governments to take account of labour market changes and participation patterns. They argue that the measures adopted depend on the inherited institutional structure of the pension system in these particular countries and that the crucial difference lies in the initial choice between a social insurance and a multi-pillar system.

The following chapter, by Jane Falkingham and Katherine Rake considers New Labour's pension settlement and the challenges arising from the demographic, economic and policy legacy of the 20th century. They consider a range of criteria they believe necessary to underpin a sustainable pension system and use these to evaluate the extent to which the reforms will deliver adequate incomes for pensioners of today and those of tomorrow. They conclude by saying that now might be the time for Labour to start ‘thinking the unthinkable’ by going ‘back to basics’ in relation to the basic state pension, an option that is gaining currency in policy and academic circles.

Kirk Mann brings together structures, risk and reflexivity in the context of retirement and pensions policy. His chapter contrasts the structural features of capitalist societies, including pension funds and their investment strategies, risk management, and the importance of these funds in the money markets with sociological accounts such as risk and reflexivity. He explores the tensions between these sociological approaches that are ‘new’ to social policy with ‘older’ traditions and ideas. In doing this he suggests that we can bring fresh insights which may help inform social policy.

Finally, Debora Price adds a gender dimension to these concerns, with a consideration of pension sharing on divorce. Two perspectives are used for a consideration of the financial position of divorced women. The first, based upon a view of the UK as a paradigm male-breadwinner nation state considers pension provision for women, particularly those who live alone.