COMING SOON
This study focuses on public policies for active ageing and how they can benefit companies, societies and pension systems.
It first provides the context, reviewing the employment situation of 50+ workers, who are sometimes advanced in their careers and yet far from the legal retirement age.
Then it maps Member States’ public policies promoting a life-cycle approach to work in good health and favouring the retention of older workers until the legal retirement age.
It finally evaluates the impact of such policies on the adequacy and fiscal sustainability of pension systems across the EU.
To address the pressure that demographic ageing has put on pension systems in recent decades, the EU and its Member States have put in place different measures, including active ageing policies. Nevertheless, these policies are still very much linked only to old age and the labour market, functioning more as a stopgap than a real action to achieve active, healthy, and dignified ageing.
Key findings and recommendations:
Active ageing policies must:
- Conceive active ageing as a comprehensive, holistic and preventive approach that contemplates the entire life cycle and goes beyond the labour-economic sphere.
- Promote more inclusive workplaces tailored to the needs of older workers (e.g. ergonomic improvements, part-time retirement, additional leave days, overtime exemption, care breaks or sabbaticals).
- Promote social participation and ensure both physical health and mental well-being.
- Recognise that experiences in childhood, youth and adulthood have consequences in old age. This is because by optimising opportunities for health, participation and security as a way of improving well-being as people age, older workers will have more reason to remain active in the paid labour market and continue to contribute to the pension system.
- Design an impact assessment tool (Active Ageing Test) to ensure active ageing in taken into account during policy-making processes within the EU
If active ageing policies take all of the above points into account, they have the potential to help address the challenges of an ageing workforce and alleviate pressure on European social protection systems.