Abstract

ARZA, Camila. Inclusion, basic pensions and (in)equality: the distribution of economic protection in old age in four Latin American countries. SaberEs [online]. 2017, vol.9, n.1, pp.69-89. ISSN 1852-4418.

In Latin America, contributory pension systems face serious obstacles to providing adequate coverage and benefits for all older adults. Basic and non-contributory benefits are instruments for extending coverage and guaranteeing a minimum benefit, beyond what each worker can obtain as a result of past contributions. Policies of this type, with different designs, exist in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil and Chile, the four countries analyzed in this article. All of them achieved a high coverage rate of the elderly as a result of a variety of policies that, depending on the case, included flexibilities of access to contributory pension benefits, targeted non-contributory pensions, universal benefits, and/or special programs. This article presents and compares the characteristics of basic and non-contributory old-age benefits in these four countries and evaluates how they work together with the other components of the pension system, focusing on the distribution of coverage, benefit amounts and their distribution, and the segmentation between contributory and non-contributory benefits that are part of the system of economic protection in old age as a whole.

Keywords : Social security; Coverage; Pensions.

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