Besides analysing the budget outlooks for the pension schemes and the scheme of guaranteed income for the elderly, the FPB also examines these schemes from the point of view of income distribution.
What are the redistribution aspects of the different pension schemes? How does the poverty risk develop among the pensioners? Are statutory pensions an efficient tool in fighting against poverty amongst the elderly? If so, will this still be the case in the years to come? How will the replacement rates of the different pensioner categories develop in each pension scheme? What would be the impact of reforms on the amount of the pension benefit for various types of beneficiaries? These are a few examples of the questions the Federal Planning Bureau is trying to answer.
Moreover, the FPB measures the financial incentives for leaving the labour market that are part of the pension scheme and the early retirement scheme.
Methods and tools
In parallel with analysing the efficiency of the different statutory pension schemes in the fight against poverty and the evolution of the poverty rates (according to various data sources), the FPB also uses the following instruments:
the MALTESE model, used to study the repercussions of the evolution of socioeconomic behaviours as well as of social policy measures on future replacement rates within the context of population ageing.
The AIM project, which analyses the adequacy of the pension schemes at the European level. Within the framework of this project, a dynamic microsimulation model is being developed.
The MEP model, which simulates the allowances in the retirement and early retirement schemes at an individual level, whilst taking into account the fiscal and parafiscal levies on these income replacement benefits (see MEP in WP 7-06).
Periodical publications
Annual Report of the Study Committee on Ageing (annual publication, in May).
