Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0

Author-Name: Bernard H Casey
Author-Workplace-Name:Institute for Employment Research, University of Warwick, UK
Author-Email:b.casey@warwick.ac.uk

Author-Name: Panayiotis Yiallouros
Author-Workplace-Name: Economist, Social Security Consultant
Author-Email:pdy@cyprusinbox.com

Title: The Slow Growth and Sudden Demise of Supplementary Pension 
Abstract:The Cyprus public pension scheme is widely known and commented upon.  Less well known is the system of supplementary retirement provision in Cyprus.  Since the second world war, however, a relative complex system was built up on the basis of provident funds and occupational pension schemes.  As well as being complex, the system was inequitable – public sector employees were considerably better provided for than private sector employees, and some 40 per cent of employees had no supplementary pension or provident fund coverage at all.  The financial and economic crisis, which hit Cyprus hard, had particularly dramatic consequences for the various supplementary schemes.  Those for employees in the public sector were abolished completely, at least for new entrants.  Provident funds and those pension schemes that were funded were victims of the “haircut”, since a substantial proportion of their resources were held as deposits with the banks.  Whether a system of supplementary provision will be rebuilt and, if so, how it might look, is an open question.

Classification-JEL:
Keywords:pensions, provident finds, crisis, troika, Cyprus. 
Journal: Cyprus Economic Policy Review
Pages: 25-51
Volume: 7
Issue: 2
Year: 2013
Month: December
File-URL: http://www.ucy.ac.cy/erc/documents/Bernard_Yiallouros_23-51.pdf
File-Format: Application/pdf
Handle: RePEc:erc:cypepr:v:7:y:2013:i:2:p:23-51