Submission to the 2019 New Zealand Review of Retirement Income Policies

This submission focuses on why assessments of the affordability of New Zealand national superannuation needs to include robust statistical data from both i. Recent NZ statistics and ii. International jurisdictions with appropriately parallel (ethnic) populations concerning longevity projections. Longevity has plateaued and future Retirement Income Policies should not be based on erroneous data of increasing longevity.It is the objective of this submission to provide a summary of such data.Implications: Recognizing that there is far more affordability of the current national superannuation than that recently promoted would support not only a) retaining a 65-year age eligibility; but also b) a new policy of increasing the % of weekly wage set for national superannuation; from the current level of around 40% of the average wage back towards the “80%” when it was first introduced.These two aspects would also assist in reducing the creep of societal inequality, implicit in proposals to raise the age eligibility