Anticipating aging and prospecting pension for retirement well-being

• Main Authors: Javier, Roberto E., Conchada, Mitzie Irene, Jabar, Melvin A.
• Format: text
• Published: Animo Repository 2019
• Subjects: Retirement > Philippines—Planning; Older people > Philippines > Social conditions; Finance, Personal > Philippines; Financial security > Philippines; Insurance > Philippines; Older people > Pensions > Philippines; Finance; Psychology
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/faculty_research/1504
• Institution: De La Salle University

Filipino young and middle-aged adults anticipate old age positively as it is a mark of achievement in human life but negatively apprehend living through their old age, given the high incidence of poverty among the elderly in the Philippines. The issues surrounding the insurance system, income security, and social pension in old age were all related to unfavorable views about living through the aging years. In-depth group interviews (IGIs) conducted across cities and municipalities in the countryside generated conceptions about aging and concerns about becoming old in a society with no strong social protection for its graying population. A qualitative analysis was done using statistical software to summarize and synthesize the voluminous verbal data from IGIs. Themes were drawn from the transcripts of the IGIs that involved 70 adults, selected through a respondent-driven technique from purposively selected sites in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao where, according to the State statistics, the life expectancy was recorded high. Results reveal that, while Filipino young and middle-aged adults anticipate aging as an inevitable human experience that poses a high risk for healthcare in later life, their prospect for pension and retirement well-being remains remote from present financial planning in their work-life, particularly by the government. Thus, given the heightened awareness on the inevitability of aging and its consequences such as diminishing health, the cessation of employment, and eventual retirement, these suggest that: first, there is a need to harness the knowledge of workers and work organizations on the economics of the consequences of successful aging among individuals such as financial planning for retirement well-being; and second, for stakeholders to push for the State to improve the current insurance system and to provide a universal social pension that prioritizes persons deprived of income due to disability, severely debilitating disease, or lost work opportunity during their younger years. © 2019 by De La Salle University.