The Fourth Pillar and the U.K.: Flexibility, Risk and the Deinstitutionalization of the Life Course
- PDF / 167,709 Bytes
- 18 Pages / 482 x 694 pts Page_size
- 46 Downloads / 155 Views
The Fourth Pillar and the U.K.: Flexibility, Risk and the Deinstitutionalization of the Life Course Patrick John Ring Division of Risk, Associate, The Centre for Risk and Governance, Caledonian Business School, Glasgow Caledonian University, City Campus, Cowcaddens Road, Glasgow G4 0BA, U.K. E-mail: [email protected]
This paper critically examines the concept of flexibility within the context of demographic ageing and the fourth pillar approach. Using the U.K. as an example, it addresses some of the key strands of policy debate and highlights the importance of the concept of choice. By placing the discussion in the context of the theoretical debate surrounding risk and the deinstitutionalization of the life course, it suggests that policy solutions related to demographic ageing which address the concept of flexibility need to look beyond later years to address the whole of the life course. The Geneva Papers (2005) 30, 638–655. doi:10.1057/palgrave.gpp.2510054 Keywords: retirement; risk; flexibility; fourth pillar; deinstitutionalization
Introduction The relevance of the fourth pillar, that is the labour income of workers past early retirement or pension age, increasingly has come to be seen as a key element of financing pensions in the face of demographic ageing.1 The importance of developing a fourth pillar strand to pension provision has been characterized by the U.K. Government as follows: Many older people retire early even though they find work rewarding. Given greater flexibility, they would prefer to stay in work. Longer working can dramatically reduce the amount of saving needed for retirement – it gives people more time to save and means that their savings do not have to last as long.2 Its aim is to encourage what the Government, and others, have referred to as a regime of ‘‘flexible retirement’’.3 Flexibility has been a key concept in the fourth pillar approach.4 This paper critically examines the concept of flexibility within the context of demographic ageing and the fourth pillar approach, using the U.K. as a case study. Given the relatively 1 2 3 4
Dunnewijk (2002). DWP (2002, p. 94). DWP (2002); Bone and Mercer (2000). Kessler (1988); Dunnewijk (2002).
Patrick John Ring Flexibility, risk and the deinstitutionalization of the life course
639
poor levels of state pension provision in the U.K.,5 and both the importance of, and difficulties currently experienced with, private pension provision, the U.K. provides an interesting comparator for other European countries coping with the issue of demographic ageing. The paper begins by outlining the issues raised by demographic ageing and some of the key strands of policy debate that accompany this phenomenon. It then goes on to examine the concept of flexibility and suggests that the concept of choice is also important. There follows an examination of the theoretical debate surrounding risk and the deinstitutionalization of the life course, which in turn suggests it is important, in discussing retirement and the relevance of the fourth pillar, not to limi
Data Loading...
