Pension briefings
Technical papers that provide background information on various aspects of superannuation, ACC and tax policy in New Zealand.
2021
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PB 2021-3: KiwiSaver by the numbers. Size: 750.3 kB.
Document Description: Pension Briefing 2021-3 focuses on the important data gaps in KiwiSaver reporting. New Zealand has very little in-depth analysis of KiwiSaver: who benefits and who loses. Better data could signal where policy changes could be made to achieve better outcomes across different genders and ethnicities.
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PB 2021-2: NZS as basic income. Size: 865.8 kB.
Document Description: This Pension Briefing specifically focusses on the option of changing NZS into a genuine basic income that would allow for a simple but effective clawback mechanism to operate through the tax system.
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PB 2021-1: Women and the pensions gap. Size: 371.0 kB.
Document Description: This Pension Briefing is based on the RPRC 2020 Working Paper: Women and Retirement in a post COVID-19 world, by M. Claire Dale and Susan St John, comparing gender pay gaps, gender pension gaps and COVID-19 penalties in New Zealand, Australia and Ireland. The gender pay gap adversely affects women’s retirement preparation. The gender pension gap is seldom measured or even acknowledged. The gender penalty of COVID-19 has increased the magnitude of both pay and pension gaps.
2020
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PB 2020-1: Would Total Remuneration improve KiwiSaver fairness?. Size: 357.8 kB.
Document Description: Total Remuneration (TR) is the total value of an employee's annual compensation package and includes both basic pay or salary and the financial and non-financial benefits, including KiwiSaver contributions. Some regard this approach as equitable, while others argue that the employer’s KiwiSaver contribution should be an addition to gross wages. This Pension Briefing investigates the equity of 3 possible options.
2015
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PB 2015-1: Financial knowledge and capability: the plans. Size: 275.6 kB.
Document Description: In 2008, New Zealand was one of the first countries in the OECD to adopt a National Strategy for Financial Literacy. The Strategy was revised in 2014 and became the National Strategy for Financial Capability. This Pension Briefing reports on financial literacy, knowledge and capability in New Zealand.
2014
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PB 2014-4: Updating data on older workers. Size: 308.5 kB.
Document Description: The number of New Zealanders aged over 65 who are in paid work continues to grow strongly. The 2013 Census shows almost 25% of older NZers are now in paid employment for at least 1 hour a week.
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PB 2014-3: NZs treatment of pensioners whose spouses have overseas pensions. Size: 346.0 kB.
Document Description: New Zealand treats some pensioners with overseas pensions with varying degrees of anomalies and injustice. This Pension Briefing provides an example of a particularly unjust treatment that would cost little to fix and should be dealt with without further delay.
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PB 2014-2: A universal pension proposal for Australia. Size: 174.8 kB.
Document Description: Australian taxpayers spend almost as much on tax incentives for retirement saving as they spend on the Age Pension. An Australian think tank proposes the abolition of tax breaks for retirement saving and suggests using the fiscal savings to remove the means-tests on the Age Pension and to make it universal, just like New Zealand Superannuation.
2013
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PB 2013-6 New Zealand Superannuation's real costs - looking to 2060. Size: 250.9 kB.
Document Description: The Treasury has released the latest long-term estimates of New Zealand Superannuation's costs. When measured against equivalent estimates of GDP, the real cost in 2060 (47 years away) will be somewhat lower at a net 6.6% of GDP than similar estimates carried out in 2000 (9.7%). In fact, the long-term picture looks better today than it ever has in the last 13 years.
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PB 2013-4: Census 2013 - shortcomings in questions about housing. Size: 337.7 kB.
Document Description: Every five years, the government collects detailed information on New Zealanders and their homes through the Census. The 2013 questions on home ownership are the same as those asked in 2006 so we will still not really know what proportion of New Zealand’s households own the home they live in.
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PB 2013-3: Oral health, general health, and residential aged-care (2013-3). Size: 339.7 kB.
Document Description: Dental problems can be the source of general health issues, yet oral health in older people is not seen as part of overall health by central government funders. Dental care is specifically excluded from the Ministry of Health’s Age Related Residential Care contract between district health boards and rest homes and hospitals.
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PB 2013-1: Updating the NZSF investment performance numbers to 2012 (2013-1). Size: 295.9 kB.
Document Description: This Pension Briefing updates estimates of the New Zealand Superannuation Fund's impact on the government's balance sheet. Over the nine years to 30 June 2012, the accumulated investment returns exceeded the cost of government debt by just $346 million. Allowing for the risks associated with a 100%-leveraged investment strategy means that taxpayers have not been appropriately rewarded. On that measure, taxpayers are $2.8 billion worse-off over nine years.
2012
2011
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PB 2011-1: The future of Accident Compensation (ACC). Size: 185.6 kB.
Document Description: A Forum: The future of ACC, was held on 26 August 2011 in the Owen G Glenn Building at the University of Auckland Business School. The event was co-hosted by the University’s Retirement Policy and Research Centre and ACC Group, the ACC Futures Coalition, and AUT’s Centre for Occupational Health and Safety Research. This Pension Briefing provides a short summary of each presentation, with links to the slides, papers and reading resources available from other databases and websites.
2010
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PB 2010-7: Improving the affordability and equity of New Zealand Superannuation. Size: 450.5 kB.
Document Description: Raising the age of eligibility for New Zealand Superannuation is widely seen as necessary for fiscal sustainability. The Retirement Commissioner reinforced this view in her 2010 Report. This Pension Briefing examines the way in which increasing the degree of targeting might also contribute to reducing the fiscal cost while also addressing some of the current intergenerational inequities of NZS.
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PB 2010-6: Updating the NZSF investment performance numbers. Size: 169.6 kB.
Document Description: Unless the New Zealand Superannuation Fund’s investment returns are more than the cost of government debt, it worsens the government's overall financial position. This Pension Briefing updates an earlier analysis of its investment performance to 30 June 2010. The NZSF has missed the ‘hurdle rate’ by an accumulated $1.8 billion since it started in 2004.
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PB 2010-5: Household wealth in Australia and New Zealand. Size: 230.4 kB.
Document Description: The debate in New Zealand about compulsory private provision has restarted. Advocates for compulsion point to Australia as a success story; it has had full compulsion for 18 years and a lesser version for a further six years. Despite claims to the contrary, households' assets and liabilities in the two countries seem to share more overall similarities than differences.
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PB 2010-4: How much will New Zealand Superannuation really cost?. Size: 245.3 kB.
Document Description: When discussing the future affordability of government expenditure on the old like New Zealand Superannuation, what matters is whether New Zealand's economic output grows sufficiently to support the increasing claims of the growing aged population. Showing costs as a proportion of New Zealand's future economic output is one way of expressing that connection. That presents a less alarming picture.
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PB 2010-3: Comments on investment income, tax, welfare benefits and the 2010 Budget. Size: 206.3 kB.
Document Description: The 2010 Budget changed some aspects of the tax treatment of investment income, but its focus on rationalising the top tax rates and on property investment means there is more work to be done if overall equity is to be restored to the tax and benefit systems. Most of the issues raised by the RPRC's Working Paper 2010-1 have yet to be addressed.
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PB 2010-2: What do New Zealanders own and owe? News from SoFIE 2004-2006. Size: 255.0 kB.
Document Description: This Pension Briefing looks at the assets and liabilities of all New Zealand households over 2001-2006. In a 2009 Treasury report, key 2006 findings include: less than half of NZer's total assets were in housing, financial and business investments total 35.2%, and total debt was 13.9% of total assets in 2006.
Archived Pension Briefings 2006 - 2009 available on request:
PB 2009-6: Modelling the distributional aspects of KiwiSaver: methodology and results
The taxpayer-funded subsidies to KiwiSaver are distributed to members based on the contributions made by individuals and their employers. Over time, the subsidies that relate to the employers' contributions become relatively more important as the real value of the fixed-dollar "member tax credit" diminishes. KiwiSaver Excel Spreadsheets model impacts of these and highlight aspects of the scheme that could have substantial distributional implications now and in the future as the scheme matures.
PB 2009-5: Universal NZS and tax: implications for sustainability
New Zealand has a universal state pension for all residents from age 65 who satisfy minimal residency tests. The simplicity and efficiency gains of paying a relatively generous universal pension without any income test comes with a high fiscal cost. The quid pro quo of universal provision is usually high marginal taxes on the well-off. In light of the ageing of the population and recent tax changes, including KiwiSaver and PIEs, the coherence of universality may need to be revisited.
PB 2009-4: If I won $5 million (2009-4)
Structuring investments to maximise after-tax income illustrates the growth of complexity and resulting inequities in the current tax environment. PIEs and registered superannuation schemes can be used to structure investments to maximise after-tax returns.
PB 2009-3: Structuring remuneration to maximise value through "salary sacrifice"
This briefing paper outlines the way in which remuneration can be structured to maximise the net income without extra cost to employers. It takes the example of an employee receiving total remuneration of $150,000 a year from an employer that is willing to co-operate.
PB 2009-2: Superannuation schemes, tax and "income"
This briefing paper describes the different types of superannuation schemes that New Zealand now has, and the different definitions of "income" that may affect income tax and the interaction between individuals and the welfare system.
PB 2009-1: International comparison of poverty amongst older people
This briefing paper examines some New Zealand implications of a 2008 OECD report Growing Unequal? Income distribution and poverty in OECD countries.
PB 2008-5: A history of public and private provision 1975-2008
This briefing paper provides an overview of the history of changes to superannuation in New Zealand.
PB 2008-4: Household Wealth 2007
This briefing paper analyses the data on household net wealth in New Zealand
PB 2008-3: KiwiSaver and remuneration
This briefing paper outlines the way in which recent policy changes impact on remuneration strategies for employers
PB 2008-2: Structuring remuneration
This briefing paper outlines the way in which remuneration can be structured to maximise the return from, among other things, KiwiSaver initiatives without extra cost to employers.
PB 2008-1: KiwiSaver
This briefing paper briefly assesses the case for KiwiSaver that saving for retirement will improve New Zealand’s current account deficit.
PB 2007-1: Pay salary sacrifice KiwiSaver and PIEs
This briefing paper explores the nature of the various tax changes to be introduced in 2007/08 and their impact on possible decisions by employees concerning the structure of their remuneration and contributions to KiwiSaver.