Pension provision, lifetime financial sustainability, care and dignity in old age: legal and economic issues

Abstract

The legal, policy and economic issues associated with pension provision, lifetime financial sustainability, and particularly care and dignity in old age and their implications for home life are fundamental challenges for the future of our society. Pension provision is in crisis and this paper highlights the crucial policy choices and regulatory challenges that this entails. The analysis also highlights the importance of the ‘nuclear family’ and the ‘extended family’ in the provision of care, from child care to old age care and the consideration that the home, supported by the wider society, is the natural environment in which such provision ought to take place. In this context, an adequate legal and regulatory framework for pensions needs to balance a number of competing interests, given the implications in terms of intergenerational debt within the national “family” of the financing of care and income in old age, the need for financial sustainability over a lifetime and the broader social justice considerations that are at stake in the design of schemes that provide adequate care and income in old age in a market economy.