Pensioners in Sweden are generally not financially vulnerable, the Fiscal Policy Council states.

A new report states that pensioners' disposable income has on average increased in line with or faster than the income of non-pensioners.

Disposable income means the money you have left each month after taxes and fees have been paid.

Over the past 30 years, the purchasing power of pensioners has risen faster than for non-pensioners, the council writes.

The basic protection for people with a low pension, for example housing supplement, is more generous than the corresponding protection for the working population.

The proportion of materially poor pensioners in Sweden is also lowest in the entire EU.

Against this background, it is difficult to pursue the thesis that pensioners are generally a financially vulnerable group, "the authors of the report write.

There are exceptions

Despite the fact that pensioners have relatively good financial conditions, there are groups that are an exception.

This is mainly due to the so-called life income principle, that the pension is linked to how much you have earned during your working life and how many pension years the earned amount is to be distributed over.

Those who have worked less or retired early therefore receive a lower pension.

The very oldest - mainly single women over the age of 80 - are raised as a particularly vulnerable group.

So do the ten percent of the working population who do not receive an occupational pension.

Employment issue

The pension issue is largely an employment issue, the council states.

They especially point out the low-educated and foreign-born as groups that may be affected in the future.

All measures that strengthen the motives for working and working longer are therefore good if you want to increase pensions, they reason.

They also state that the pensioners, despite the relative prosperity, received lower compensation than expected: “The retirement age has not increased in relation to life expectancy.

Therefore, the earned pension rights have had to suffice for more and more years in retirement ", it is written.

The conclusions also address a boot for the parliamentary parties: "There is reason to be critical of the political handling of the pension issue in recent times."

one writes.

The Council believes that the pension system is not suitable for short-termism and uncertainty, but requires decisions made by broad political majorities.

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Then you may need to save for a pension: hear the savings economist Frida Bratt.

Photo: SVT