Wednesday's front page report that the pension age has been increased from 60 to 65 in Curaçao sparked some reaction there, but also in St. Maarten (see related articles). It concerns primarily labour unions that are critical of the decision and worried about the effects.
It must be pointed out that Curaçao's AOV old age pension fund managed by the Social Insurance Bank SVB is in a dire financial state largely due to the ageing population, which translates to fewer working contributors and more retired recipients. The situation is apparently not as alarming locally, but also here it is an issue that will have to be addressed in the near future.
Curaçao's union central SSK says it did not have any real participation and asked relevant questions about people doing hard manual labour having to keep working until they are 65. SSK said it even had proposed as alternative to increase the AOV premium paid by employers and personnel each by one per cent, but under the current social-economic circumstances many consider that highly unadvisable.
As is the case with SSK, the Windward Islands Chamber of Labour Unions (WICLU) also wondered how people would gain anything by working another five years if their full pensions have already been paid and built up when they are 60. The fact of the matter is, however, that the current system is not affordable in the long run, so something will have to be done.
In the new special overseas public entities of the Netherlands – Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba – the pension age is also going up to 62 in 2015 and to 65 in 2021, while in the Netherlands itself it's already 65 and even will become 66 in 2020. One of the arguments to justify these measures is that in addition to an increased average lifespan, modern-day health care also allows for people to work longer.
WICLU's suggestion to make it voluntary to continue working after 60 is nevertheless a good one, which Aruba is currently implementing with its so-called "flex pension" that increases the pension allowance, once it is received, for each year one keeps working after 60, up to age 65. Whether this also will produce enough savings to guarantee the fund's long term viability on that island remains to be seen, but it in any case offers an incentive, rather than forcing people to delay their retirement.
Correction:
Due to an oversight, Thursday's editorial wrongly stated "the stories in the paper today and yesterday about locally purchased shoes are just examples of the kind of issues with which people find themselves confronted on a daily basis." However, while the article in the Wednesday edition was indeed about footwear purchased from a store on the island, the shoes mentioned on Thursday had been bought in Italy. The Daily Herald apologises for the error.
