Swiss vote against plan to save pensions

In a referendum, voters reject raising retirement age of women The package being decided included making retirement between the ages of 62 and 70 more flexible Other measure include raising the standard value-added tax rate from 2021 Authorities warned

Zurich, Sept. 24: Swiss voters rejected raising women’s retirement age to 65 in a referendum on shoring up the wealthy nation’s pension system as a wave of Baby Boomers stops working, projections by broadcaster SRF showed on Sunday.

The package being decided under the Swiss system of direct democracy included making retirement between the ages of 62 and 70 more flexible and raising the standard value-added tax (VAT) rate from 2021 to help finance the stretched pension system.

Authorities pushing the first serious reform of the pension system in two decades had warned that old-age benefits were increasingly at risk as life expectancy increases and interest rates remain exceptionally low, cutting investment yields.

The government-supported plan sought to secure the level of pensions through 2030 by cutting costs and raising additional revenue.

Minimum pay-out rates would gradually fall to stabilise the mandatory occupational pensions system and workers’ pension contributions would rise, while public pensions for all new recipients would go up by $72.25 a month.

The retirement age for women would have gradually risen by a year to 65, the same as for men. “That is no life,” complained one 49-year-old kiosk cashier, who identified herself only as Angie. “You go straight from workto the graveyard.”