(e) Actuarial considerations : The issue is the extent to which it is permissible for pension arrangements to take into account the fact that, on average, women live longer than men. This could be done by increasing female employee contributions relative to men, or by differentiating between employer contributions in respect of male and female employees. There is no need to do either of these: the total potential liabilities of a scheme may be

doi:10.4324/9781843145585-95

Chapter

Chapter

ABSTRACT

The employer’s contributions ... vary over time, so as to cover the balance of the cost of the pensions promised. They are ... higher for female than for male employees.

This variability and inequality is due to the use of actuarial factors in the mechanism for funding the scheme. The aim of an occupational retirement pension scheme being to provide for the future payment of periodic pensions, the scheme’s financial resources, accrued through funding, must be adjusted according to the pensions which, according to the forecasts, will have to be paid. The assessments needed to give effect to this system are based on a number of objective factors, such as the return on the scheme’s investments, the rate of increase in salaries and demographic assumptions, in particular those relating to the life expectancy of workers.