The Law of 5 September 2001 guaranteeing a continuous reduction in the public debt and the setting up of the Ageing Fund also provided for the creation of the Study Committee on Ageing within the High Council of Finance.
This Committee publishes an annual report in which the financial consequences of the population’s evolution for the different statutory pension schemes, social security schemes for salaried workers and self-employed workers and the scheme of guaranteed income for the elderly are assessed (see theme ‘Population’). The Study Committee can undertake, on its own initiative or at the request of the government, specific studies related to ageing (poverty, ‘second pillar’ pension schemes, etc.). The Law entrusts the FPB with the secretariat of the Committee. The FPB thus plays an important role in the drawing up of the necessary assessments and the preparation of the annual report of the Committee.
The department ‘Borrowing Requirements of the Public Sector’ within the High Council of Finance uses the report of the Study Committee to make recommendations for budgetary policy.
On the basis of the work of the Study Committee on Ageing, the federal government draws up a memorandum on population ageing. The document contains an assessment of the additional costs in the social security schemes, describes the general policy in order to meet the consequences of ageing, gives an account overview for the Ageing Fund and describes the evolution of supplementary old-age pensions and of poverty amongst the elderly.
Methods and instruments
medium-term outlooks complemented by long-term projections of social expenses according to hypotheses about ageing selected by the Study Committee (see sub-theme ‘Financial developments for social protection’)
long-term social sustainability (see sub-theme ‘Income distribution and poverty’)
Periodical publications
High Council of Finance – Study Committee on Ageing – Annual Report (annual publication in May).
