A Universal Basic Pension for Europe's Elderly: Options and Pitfalls

Tim Goedemé; Wim Van Lancker

doi:10.2202/1932-0183.1119

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A Universal Basic Pension for Europe's Elderly: Options and Pitfalls

Tim Goedemé and Wim Van Lancker

Published/Copyright: August 12, 2009

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From the journal Basic Income Studies Volume 4 Issue 1

In this article we explore the implementation of a European basic pension (BP) scheme as a means of combating financial poverty of Europe's elderly. As earlier contributions already outlined the practical and ethical arguments that favour a European basic income, we assume that a basic income is philosophically and ethically justified and that the European Union has a crucial role to play in its implementation. In this article, we broaden the scope of the discussion to examining the various (and often technical) options, difficulties and pitfalls associated with the practical design and implementation of a harmonised European minimum income scheme. We first offer an overview of minimum income guarantees for the elderly in Europe. Second, we make a detailed assessment of the issues involved in the design of a BP. Third, we shed some light on the European dimension of this proposal and conclude with a sketch of three possible BP scenarios. Our findings confirm that it is one thing to be in favour of BP, but another to design a realistic and politically feasible proposal.

Keywords: Keywords – basic pension; European Union; minimum income guarantees; pension reform; poverty.

Published Online: 2009-8-12

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Articles in the same Issue

https://doi.org/10.2202/1932-0183.1119

Keywords for this article

Keywords – basic pension; European Union; minimum income guarantees; pension reform; poverty.