From the Wharton School, offering a comprehensive assessment of the political and financial dimensions of public-sector pensions from the colonial period until the emergence of modern retirement plans in the twentieth century.

From the Pension Research Council of the Wharton School, this book explores the diversity of governmental pension plans and investigates how these financial institutions must change in years to come.

The first comprehensive guide to mastering the roles and responsibilities of a public pension fiduciary in the U.S. In an ever-changing financial and political landscape, your job as a public pension fiduciary continues to get more difficult. Now, you have the help you need. U.S. Public Pension Handbook is the only one-stop resource that covers the various areas of public pension governance, investment management, infrastructure, accounting, and law. This comprehensive guide presents critical data, information, and insights in topic-specific, easy-to-understand ways—providing the knowledge you need to elevate your expertise and overall contribution to your pension plan or system. U.S. Public Pension Handbook covers:•Today’s domestic and global public pension marketplace•The ins and outs of the defined benefit model, the defined contribution, and hybrid pension designs•Financial concepts central to the actuarial valuation of pension benefits•Public pension investment policies and philosophies•Asset allocations and how they have changed over time•State and local government pension contribution policies•The impact of governance structure and board composition on organizational results•Fiduciary responsibility and the general legal/regulatory framework governing trustees•How changes in trust law may affect public pension trustee fiduciary responsibility and liability•Best practices in pension governance and organizational designPublic pension trustees are the unsung heroes of the world of finance, collectively managing over $6 trillion in retirement assets in this country alone. U.S. Public Pension Handbook provides the grounding you need to make sure you perform your all-important with the utmost expertise and professionalism.

In this paper the Government sets out its preferred scheme design for public service pensions. It is built on the foundations laid by Lord Hutton in his report (Independent Public Service Pensions Commission: final report, 2011, ISBN 9780108510410). The cost of public service pensions paid out has risen by over a third over the last ten years to £32 billion a year. Reforms to date have been insufficient to reverse the increase in costs of public service schemes from rising longevity. The Government's offer is: benefits already earned are protected; for those in final salary schemes, those past benefits will be linked to their final salary when they leave the scheme or retire; public service workers with ten years or less to their current pension age, will see no change in when they can retire; Government will continue to pay more overall toward pension benefits than the workforce. The scheme design will ensure: guaranteed, index-linked pension benefits on retirement; an accrual rate of 1/60ths and earnings indexation for benefits while still working in the public service; fairer distribution of benefits across the workforce; and, that most low and middle earners working a full career will receive pension benefits at least as good as they get now. But in return, the Government is asking public service workers to pay more towards their pensions and work a bit longer. The Government's offer is conditional on the trades unions and the Government reaching agreement on the reforms.

There has been much public discussion about the affordability of public service pensions. This National Audit Office report aims to bring greater transparency to, and understanding of, the cash costs involved. Total payments to more than 2 million pensioners in the UK's four largest pay-as-you-go pension schemes (also known as unfunded schemes - where current employee and employer contributions are used to pay current pensions) were £19.3 billion in 2008-09, a real terms increase of 38 per cent since 1999-2000. This is driven by more employees retiring each year, which is a substantially more significant factor than longer lifespans. Employee contributions of £4.4 billion reduced the taxpayer's share of costs to £14.9 billion in 2008-09. The employee element grew by 56 per cent in real terms since 1999-2000 because staff numbers and contribution rates have increased. The report also looks at projections of payments across all UK public sector pay-as-you-go pension schemes over the next fifty years. Expressed in terms of constant 2008-09 prices, the Government Actuary's Department projects total payments rising to over £79 billion a year by 2059-60. The Treasury has a reasonable framework in place for assessing future costs and has undertaken some analysis on the sensitivity of projections to changes in key assumptions. The Treasury has not undertaken any systematic analysis of the effects of changing its assumption that there will be zero public service headcount growth, despite the existence of several factors that could put upwards pressure on staff numbers in the long term.

Pension reform is high on the policy agenda of many advanced and emerging market economies. In advanced economies the challenge is generally to contain future increases in public pension spending as the population ages. In emerging market economies, the challenges are often different. Where pension coverage is extensive, the issues are similar to those in advanced economies. Where pension coverage is low, the key challenge will be to expand coverage in a fiscally sustainable manner. This volume examines the outlook for public pension spending over the coming decades and the options for reform in 52 advanced and emerging market economies.

Changes made in 2007-08 to the pension schemes of civil servants, NHS staff and teachers are on course to deliver significant savings and stabilise pension costs around their current levels as a proportion of GDP. Yet the value for money of the changes cannot be demonstrated, because the Treasury and employers did not agree the long term role of pensions in recruitment and retention of staff and the Treasury no longer has a financial objective against which to monitor the impact of the changes.And there is a risk that overall costs to taxpayers will be greater as a proportion of GDP, if growth in GDP is permanently less than expected. The 2007-08 changes affected schemes that account for nearly three-quarters of UK public service pay-as-you-go pension payments. There were immediate increases in employee contributions for NHS staff and teachers, following earlier increases for civil servants. The normal pension age was raised for new staff, from 60 years to 65 years in most cases. In addition, a new cost-sharing and capping measure was introduced to transfer, from employer to employees, the risk of extra costs from changes in factors such as pensioners living longer than previously expected. The NAO estimates that these changes will reduce costs to taxpayers in 2059-60 by 14 per cent compared to forecasts made without the changes. Aggregate savings over all years in the period to 2059-60 are equivalent to £67 billion in 2008-09 prices.

In 2007-08, new pension schemes were introduced for civil servants, NHS staff and teachers, designed to make public service pensions affordable. The changes are likely to reduce costs to taxpayers of the pension schemes by £67 billion over 50 years, with costs stabilising at around 1% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) or 2% of public expenditure. The Committee is concerned that the Treasury did not test the potential impact of changes in some of the key assumptions underpinning the long-term cost projections. In addition, the Treasury has not tested whether reducing the value of pensions would affect the public sector's ability to recruit and retain high quality staff. Three-fifths of the savings to the taxpayer were expected to come from the cost sharing and capping mechanism - a transfer, from employers to employees, of extra costs that arise if pensioners live longer than previously expected. Employees would potentially pay 70% more for their pensions over the next 50 years if life expectancy continues to increase more than expected. Implementation remains on hold while the Government decides how to respond to the Independent Public Service Pensions Commission (the Hutton Commission). Public service employees do not have a clear understanding of the value of their pensions because they are not provided with clear and intelligible information to enable them to make rational decisions. Further changes to public service pensions are expected as Hutton's recommendations are implemented, but this should bring a period of stability and certainty for long-term public service pensions policy.

Intense media coverage of the public pension funding crisis continues to fuel heightened awareness in and debate over public pension benefits. With over $3 trillion in assets currently under management, the ramifications of poor oversight are severe. It is important that practitioners, researchers, and taxpayers be well-advised regarding any concer

The 2019 edition of Pensions at a Glance highlights the pension reforms undertaken by OECD countries over the last two years. Moreover, two special chapters focus on non-standard work and pensions in OECD countries, take stock of different approaches to organising pensions for non-standard workers in the OECD, discuss why non-standard work raises pension issues and suggest how pension settings could be improved.