Category Archives: Retirement & Savings

The Sweet Hereafter: Will You Be Better off Under RSS?

Listener 9 August 1997

Keywords: Social Policy;

In this column I assume that the government’s proposed Retirement Savings Scheme (RSS) works the way the government says it will. In which case the RSS is a privatization of the current New Zealand Superannuation (NZS), where instead of the government taking responsibility for the funding, the private sector does, albeit under considerable government regulation.

Risky Retirement

What You Get Out is What You Put in is A Worrying Principle for A Retiement Scheme.
Listener: 4 May, 1996.

Keywords: Social Policy;

When I began preparing this column the political party ACT had a well established policy, based on principles with which if one did not agree, at least one could understand. They have since changed their leader who has announced that parts of the policy would be changed to make them electorally attractive. Thus far their policy on retirement has not been altered, but it may be. However I am more interested in the principles. Because the ACT proposal is (or was) the most extreme scheme, it nicely illustrates key issues.