6. WE DEMAND that the poverty risk for older women be specifically targeted by providing better survivors' benefits for all partners and by improving indexation of state pensions and minimum pensions linked to increases in non-indexed wages and salaries.
...where I have to ask what the second means (non-indexed wages and salaries).
Re Belgium, the linked release contains nothing about it; does your paper version say more, f.e. stats? *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
Indexation is the linking of state pensions with earnings (rather than with inflation for example) so it ensures that the state pension will gradually increase over time in line with earnings. Ad astra per aspera
By linking with non-indexed wages, isn't it making a demand for the link with average earnings to be restored?
The UK state pension used to be linked to average earnings, but that was stopped by the Thatcher government, who tied it to inflation (usually lower) instead. Hence the erosion in real terms of the amount of the basic pension.
My mother gave up work when she had me. It was the done thing, even though she was quite successful in her career (and caused much resentment by getting promotions some male colleagues thought should be theirs by right).
My parents have a comfortable civil service pension. However, if I remember correctly, the standard survivor's benefit was one third. My father paid a large sum in extra contributions (and, caught between rule changes, I think also had to accept a lower pension) in order to increase that to one half. Given that most of her expenses would be unchanged, half of comfortable isn't enough, and if he dies first, she will be reliant on their investment income. If they weren't lucky/thrifty enough to have that cushion, I would be far more worried than I am.
