In December 2015, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in the judgement ‘Fábián vs. Hungary’ that a pensioner who took up employment as a civil servant could not be deprived from retirement benefits. A national law was making work and retirement benefits incompatible for civil servants, however this is allowed for private sector employees. Therefore, the Court held that there had been an unjustified discrimination between public and private sector employees.
AGE Platform Europe is in favour of allowing pensioners to continue employment beyond retirement age if they want and are still in good health. This would contribute to a change of paradigm around ageing and foster intergenerational solidarity, as older employees can pass on their skills and experience to younger colleagues and continue to contribute with social contributions and taxes. Some pension systems are also not generous enough to keep pensioners with low incomes out of poverty, therefore they need to rely on paid employment to maintain a life in dignity.
Depriving retirees from pension benefits because of their employment status creates however false incentives to retire.
