8th Meeting of the INTOSAI Working Group on Key National Indicators

Retirement age as sustainability indicator

Austrian experiences in the pilot audit

24 – 26 march 2015

Sofia

Elisabeth DEARING, SAI of Austria 1

Content

• Development of pensions expenditures for public servants

• Scope of the audit

• Lesson learnt

Elisabeth DEARING, SAI of Austria 2

Pensions expenditures for public servants

Impact of Pensions expenditures for public servants on fiscal sustainability

• In the year 2013: 2,3 billion euro payments-in and 8,6 billion euro payout; Netfinancing balance: 6,3 billion euro

• Compared to the year 2009 payout rose by 12,8 %

• Midterm financial plan: pensions expenditures for public servants will rise by 18,4 % from 2013 to 2018

• Measures to raise retirement age become necessary

Austrian Federal Financial Statement 2013

•

Elisabeth DEARING, SAI of Austria 3

Pensions expenditures for public servants

Pensions expenditures for public servants, who go on pension before the legal retirement age of 65

•in the year 2012

•in the ministries of justice, interior and labour and social affairs:

142,87 million euro (3,8 % of the pensions expenditures for all public servants)

A low effective retirement age is expensive

Elisabeth DEARING, SAI of Austria 4

Scope of the pilot - audit

Performance audit on the impact of legal and HRM measures on the retirement age of public servants

•covers 3 ministries (interior, justice, labour and social affairs)

•around 45.000 public servants

•Focus on incentives for

• the organization

• the individual public servant

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Audit procedure

• Collection of data on all public servants* from 2008 until 2012

• Analysis of the data

• Share of different forms of retirement (e.g. inability to work, at legal retirement age)

• Retirement age

• Differences between e.g.

• police and general administration officers

• men and women

* including permanent civil servants and contractual staff

Elisabeth DEARING, SAI of Austria 6

Selected Results

Comparison of retirement age between ministries

Elisabeth DEARING, SAI of Austria 7

Selected Results

Age distribution of retirements between different groups of public servants in the ministry of justice

Elisabeth DEARING, SAI of Austria 8

Selected results

Public servants older than 55 years – international comparison of the years 2000, 2005, 2009

Elisabeth DEARING, SAI of Austria 9

Lesson learnt I

• Distinction between legal and effective retirement age

• Effective retirement age is a useful indicator for

• target-setting

• evaluation

• comparison

Elisabeth DEARING, SAI of Austria 10

Lesson learnt II

• Recommendations for the ministries beyond simply „ raising the retirement age“ e.g.

• Focus on „retirement because of inability to work“ (individual incentives)

• Integrate financial responsibility and HRM as incentive for the organisations

Elisabeth DEARING, SAI of Austria 11

Contact

Elisabeth Dearing

dearing@rechnungshof.gv.at

Phone: 0043 711 71 - 8814

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