It is not the poorest pensioners who continue to work and earn thousands.
The group is dominated by people who had relatively high incomes before they became pensioners. And often it is men, says Folksam's pension expert Håkan Svärdman.
More than a quarter of a million Swedes receive their pension while continuing to work. The group has become so large that they have been given their own name – the working pensioners. The occupational pension company Alecta recently presented figures that the company believes show that Swedish pensioners are better off economically than their reputation.
At the age of 72, the average Swede has 77 percent of the income they had at the age of 60. At the age of 67, 46 percent have a higher income after tax than at the age of 60. One reason is that many are working pensioners, as well as low-income pensioners receiving support in the form of guaranteed pension, pension supplement, housing supplement, and elderly support.
Not All in Demand
Håkan Svärdman, pension expert at Folksam, says that the image of working pensioners is divided.
The higher your income was before you became a pensioner, the more common it is that you continue to work to some extent.
Many low-income earners neither want, can, nor are able to continue working.
Then it is absolutely not everyone on the labor market who is in demand either.
Can Increase Gaps
He sees a risk that the trend of working among pensioners will increase the gaps even further in the group.
Among those who were high-income earners, they can earn an extra 100,000 to 150,000 kronor per year. While among the few low-income earners who work, it may be around 15,000 to 20,000 per year.
But there is also a risk that policymakers will see working pensioners as the solution to the pension problem.
The biggest concern is that we risk losing sight of the fact that we have a pension system that has fallen from 61 percent of the final salary to 45 percent over the past 15 years, he says.
