The Portuguese population is aging and the projected decline in working age people to 2050 is among the steepest in any OECD country, according to the institution led by Ángel Gurría.
A riveting report on the Pension System of Portugal, published on Wednesday, makes key recommendations to simplify the current system, but will any government take action?
The existing pension system is a mix of benefits, contributory and statutory, which still manages to leave many people with tiny pensions and no social security back-up to rely on.
The OECD claims that the early retirement scheme is far too generous and stops older citizens getting jobs, “Allowing someone to retire at the age of 60 is too generous and should be severely restricted,” says the OECD, committed to forcing everyone to work until they drop, thus saving States from having to pay out any money at all after a lifetime of toil.
"Given increased life expectancy, the age of 60 to access early retirement is too low. This age has contributed to shaping social norms and influencing behavior of both workers and bosses about work in later years. This is not consistent with the effort to increase the labour supply of older workers," states the OECD whose own executive pension arrangements are not recorded.
