– ‘Explosion’ of pensions –
This year’s report focuses particularly on income security, namely pensions, which older people consistently identify as their top priority to fend off the risk of poverty.
With rising numbers of old people – two billion over the age of 60 by 2050, a similar number as children under 15 – HelpAge International chief Toby Porter said pensions were vital for all governments.
“Incomes are often too low to save for old age, which is why there’s such a need for a basic social pension now,” he said.
In low and middle-income countries, only one in four people over 65 receive a pension while worldwide, half of the global population do not have a pension, the report said.
But it applauds an “explosion” of new tax-financed, non-contributory pensions over the past two decades, which provide regular income for the very poorest.
Across Latin America, countries have “dramatically extended coverage” of social pensions, helping push them up the global rankings.
This reflects a global trend that saw China introduce a rural social pension in 2009, reaching 133 million more people, and Nepal and Thailand follow a similar route.
“In most European Union countries, pensions systems as a whole do more to reduce inequality than all other parts of the tax or benefit system combined,” said Porter.
The top 10 in the index are: Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Canada, Germany, Netherlands, Iceland, United States, Japan and New Zealand.
The bottom 10 are: Iraq, Zambia, Uganda, Jordan, Pakistan, Tanzania, Malawi, West Bank and Gaza, Mozambique and Afghanistan.
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