Private pensions and social inclusion

Increasing the role of the private sector in pension systems is one aspect of a ‘new orthodoxy’ promoted by the World Bank since the mid-1990s. This ‘new orthodoxy’ has been criticised by the ILO, ISSA and most comparative social policy academics, partly out of concern about its consequences for poverty and social exclusion. This issue has caused particular comment from UK academics, but across Europe there is still relatively little knowledge. Comparative work is largely absent. This paper reports on the early stages of an EU-funded project designed to evaluate the performance of six European pension regimes (Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, UK), with different mixes of public and private sector involvement, in terms of their ability to prevent social exclusion in old age. It will focus on the conceptual and methodological issues and problems raised by a project of this type. [Author's abstract]