Joint pension communication conference with EAPSPI and Findyourpension

On the 5th of February, the first common (pension) communication conference organized by the associations EAPSPI and ESIP and the FindyourPension initiative took place at the University of Leuven. Representatives from various pension institutions and other stakeholders as well as researchers got together in order to discuss pension communication from a cross-border and cross-pillar perspective.

During the conference an interesting exchange took place between members of EAPSPI, which represents pension institutions for public sector employees, of the European Social Insurance Platform (ESIP), which among others represents first pillar organizations and the Findyourpension Initiative which is on the way towards a European Tracking Service on Pensions. The discussions provided useful and interesting insight into the different expertise and best practices of the institutions regarding (key) pension information and communication for individuals.

Some requirements exist regarding pension information, including at EU level. Whereas the IORP II directive has laid down a set of regulations regarding information obligations in the field of occupational pension, it promotes the exchange of best practices between pension institutions and other competent authorities in order to draw up clear and comprehensive information, containing key relevant information. At the same time, the newly adopted Single Digital Gateway will require to make online information, procedures and assistance services accessible for citizens in cross-border situations. In addition, the recently started ETS project aims at setting up a cross border and cross pillar tracking services on pensions for cross border and other mobile workers in Europe. 

Beyond these new developments and requirements, all pension institutions seek and are committed to offerpension information in a digital and modern way and to facilitate the understanding of pension information, especially to younger people. This is an international trend. During his introductive lecture, Professor Stevens highlighted many reasons why information on pensions is important: how could we jointly protect the individual more against financial risks and empower trust into his different pension schemes? Interesting methods and solutions to raise awareness were offered in the morning speeches: special educational activities in Polish high schools and universities, Dutch and international studies on special choice architecture and nudging, methods like using source icons and introducing layered information on the FindyourPension website, among others.

 

Further best practices of major interest were provided by the examples in the workshops during the afternoon session. One was dedicated to personal space and log-in (with best practice examples from INPS Italy, KPA Sweden and PFZW from the Netherlands). The other one was dedicated to the use of social media (with best practice examples of ETK from Finland, ERAFP from France and INPS from Italy).

In the final panel, representatives of the different pillars debated about how we could define key relevant features  of a future  European Tracking Service, in the context of the currentproject and discussed a possible step-by-step approach, leaving the detailed information to the local tracking services.

After the end of the conference, the participants agreed to continue fostering a fruitful cooperation between EAPSPI, ESIP and Find Your Pension. The importance to exchange among pension institutions best practices as well as the conclusions drawn from different projects was highlighted. All participants were invited to contribute to the Findyourpension project and to join the inaugural meeting of the European Tracking Service to be held in September 2019.

We would like to thank once again all the speakers and participants for joining us and for making this day unique!

Below you will find the different presentations of the speakers.

All presentations are available here.