sweden suggest retire at 75

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/international-news/european/pm-says-swedes-need-to-work-until-theyre-75/article2344155/

In comments that caused uproar among the country’s powerful unions, he envisioned a society in which people work to the age of 75, making at least one career change along the way.

The push for later retirements in Sweden, where people already work longer than anywhere else in the European Union, underscores a growing problem that threatens to paralyze the euro zone. Even as debt-strapped nations make deep and painful cuts in public spending, they are bracing for the parallel threat posed by a rapidly aging work force...

To prevent a crippling burden on public welfare systems, policy makers are pushing for a variety of reforms designed to keep older workers on the job longer. In most cases, this has meant increases in official retirement ages: from 60 to 62 in France, for instance, and from 65 to 67 in Spain.

Compared to these reforms, Mr. Reinfeldt’s pitch for retirement at 75 seems “excessive,” said Asghar Zaidi, of the European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research in Vienna...

Getting Swedes to think beyond 65 hasn’t been easy, despite a dramatic overhaul of the country’s public pension system that created incentives for working later in life.

In the late 1980s, demographic projections made it clear that without changes, the country’s traditional defined benefit pension would be bankrupt in about 20 years.

(D - the next part I LIKE - raising awareness of the issue!)

A flexible retirement age allows Swedes to begin collecting their pensions at 61, but the longer they work, the more they receive in benefits. To that end, each year, an orange envelope arrives in the mail containing projections (based on estimated life span) for how much individuals are entitled to if they choose to retire at 61, 65 or 67.
The idea is to educate workers on the limitations of the system as well as encourage them to delay retirement, said Mats Persson, a professor at Stockholm University’s Institute for International Economic Studies.

“Since we got the new system, I think Swedes have a much more realistic view of pensions,” he said.