Public pensions and the welfare state in Europe: an impossible relationship since the 2008 crisis

Abstract

The economic and financial crisis that began in 2008 has raised the need to review the economic feasibility of what we know as the welfare state, as the State now has difficulty assuming the economic cost of keeping the services running, together with the fact that over many years of social struggle the citizens have gained what society considers as rights, which should not be terminated by any governments, independent of their political ideology. As a result of the crisis, one of the aspects with most impact has involved pensions and their viability. Pension policy has suffered phenomena such as falling birth rates, increased life expectancy, and labor markets modified by the decline in employment. This report starts by reviewing the concept of pensions and then looks at pensions in Europe over recent years as well as how the crisis has affected their feasibility.