International Handbook On Old-age Insurance

Features

Description

One measure of public program response to rapidly expanding older populations is the approach to old-age pensions under social insurance, social assistance, and provident fund systems. Social insurance is clearly the preferred method of meeting the income needs of the elderly, but historical, as well as current social and economic conditions are forcing many nations to reevaluate the characteristics of viable and sustainable social insurance programs.

This has led to a variety of innovations in old-age pension programs development, including revised benefit formulas, raised retirement ages, increased income testing, and expanded reliance on private occupational supplemental programs. The essays in this new international handbook analyze the impact of the economic, social, and cultural effects of aging populations on government social insurance policies.

They offer a perspective on how twenty different countries have approached income maintenance programs for the elderly. Collectively, the contributors demonstrate how governments, non-governmental entities, communities, and families respond to changes in traditional income and social service support systems.

They provide not only descriptions of existing programs, but also a better understanding of the factors that gave rise to their distinct characteristics. This important new collection will be required reading for everyone involved in elderly services. Review: ?Different countries face some common problems because of the aging of the population and the tendency of many workers to leave the labor force at earlier ages.

This collection reveals how 20 countries at various stages of development have addressed the problem of old age insurance. Discussions are quite brief (approximately 12 pages) and are written by different authorities for each country. The general format for the chapters is a brief history, program characteristics and special features, methods of funding, and principal areas of concern.

This is not a work on the economics of demographic change as is James H. Schulz, et al., Economics of Population Aging (1991); nor is it a detailed discussion of the income support system as is Social Security's Looming Surpluses, ed. by Carolyn L. Weaver (CH, Sep'91). What it does very well is compare programs between highly developed countries like the US and those of countries as diverse as Tanzania and Ghana.

This book would be of interest to readers from any discipline concerned with social programs to assist the elderly.?-Choice