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Summary
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The possibility of withdrawing the pension over a fixed number of
years, for example 5 or 10 years, instead of as a life annuity is quite
new and was introduced at the beginning of the 1990s. The share of
pensioners choosing to withdraw their pensions over a fixed number
of years has increased over the years. The fact that fewer pensioners
choose to annuitise their pensions could have consequences for the
private economy of these individuals, but also for government income
and expenditures.
Objectives
ISF has been commissioned by the Government to investigate the
decrease in the annuitisation rates of occupational pensions and the
possible effects of this. The commission consists of two parts. This
report represents the first part and aims to map the share withdrawing
occupational pensions over a fixed number of years, the development
of this trend over time, and possible explanations for this
development. The report also examines the consequences for the
economy of individuals and for central and local governments and
discusses possible future developments.
Methods
To investigate the development of occupational pension withdrawals,
descriptive statistics have been collected from the pension insurance
companies Alecta (for white-collar workers in the private sector),
AMF (for blue-collar workers in the private sector), Kåpan and SPV
(for central government employees) and KPA (for employees in
county councils and municipalities).
To gain insights into the choice between annuitisation and withdrawal
of the occupational pension over a fixed number of years, a
questionnaire was administrated through Sifo’s web panel. The target
group for the questionnaire was persons between the ages of 62 and
67 who have an occupational pension capital, and will retire soon or
have retired recently.
Interviews were held with representatives from the unions and
employer organisations that negotiate the terms and conditions of the
occupational pension plans, and with representatives from pension
insurance companies. This was done in order to allow them to express