Less than one in ten people in Luxembourg were still working six months after receiving their first pension last year, one of the lowest rates in the EU, Luxembourg Times reports.
Only 9.4 per cent of people aged 50 to 74 in Luxembourg remained in work after receiving their first pension, according to figures released by official statistics agency Eurostat on Monday.
That is well below the EU average of 13%, and the share of Luxembourg retirees in the labour force is among the lowest in a quarter of the 30 countries – 27 EU member states, plus Iceland, Switzerland and Norway – Eurostat estimates.
The proportion of people who said they continued to work because of financial need in Luxembourg, 14.4 per cent, was the third highest of all countries in the study. Almost half said they continued to work simply because they liked their job.
The study only looked at labour force participation after the first pension and did not distinguish between public and private pensions, so did not distinguish between those who took early retirement in Luxembourg and those who retired at 65 on a state pension in another EU country.
The official retirement age in Luxembourg is 65, but many people leave work much earlier, often at 57 or 60, depending on their level of contributions.
The proportion of Luxembourg residents working past the official retirement age has more than doubled in a decade, but still represents a tiny percentage of the country’s population over 65, according to social security ministry figures from last year.
Social Security Minister Martine Deprez launched a public consultation on possible pension reforms in Luxembourg in the autumn, warning last year that without changes the pension fund’s €22 billion portfolio would run out of money by 2042.
By 2027, Luxembourg will be paying more to pensioners than it collects from working people as the number of pensioners grows faster than the labour force, according to projections by the Inspectorate-General for Social Security in 2022.
