【华盛顿邮报】面对老龄化和养老危机，你的养老金准备充足了吗？

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今日外刊来源

本文节选自：The Washington Post（华盛顿邮报）

发布时间：2022.10.31

作者：Stuart Trow

原文标题：Can You Protect Your Pension From the Cost-of-Living Crisis?

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今日外刊原文

The cost-of-living crisis has prompted more young workers to opt out of their workplace pensions, forgoing contributions from both their employers and the government. According to investment platform AJ Bell, 34% of workers have opted out or are considering doing so, a figure that rises to 47% for 18- to 34-year-olds.

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生活成本危机促使更多的年轻工作者选择退出职工养老金计划，即放弃雇主和政府为其缴纳的养老金。根据投资平台AJ Bell的数据，有34%的工作者已经选择放弃养老金或正在考虑放弃，而在18至34岁的人群中，这一比例已升高到47%。[考研题源报刊]

This is the opposite of what this week’s Pensions Awareness campaign seeks to achieve. Ideally, halting pension contributions should only be a last resort given the matching contributions from your employer and the government. Yet tough economic times mean that more people, especially the young, are doing precisely that. This is not a decision to be taken lightly, but if the alternative is escalating debt, temporarily suspending your contributions might be the least-bad option.

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这与本周开展的养老金认识活动想要达成的目标完全相反。理想情况下，暂停缴纳养老金应该只是一种最后手段，因为雇主和政府也缴纳了相应的份额。然而，严峻的经济形势意味着越来越多的人，尤其是年轻人，正选择这么做。这不是一个可以轻易做出的决定，但如果另外一个选项是债台高筑，那么自己暂停缴纳养老金可能不是最坏的选择。[考研题源报刊]

Ten years ago, opting in was the default option for workplace pensions. In 2012, in an effort to increase pension participation, the government introduced a subtle legislative change that made opting out of an employer’s pension scheme the default option. Nobody was forced to participate, despite the obvious financial advantages, but if people didn’t want to be involved, they had to consciously leave the plan.

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十年前，加入职工养老金缴纳计划是默认选项。2012年，为了提高养老金的参与度，政府对立法进行了细微的调整变化，让默认加入但随后员工可自主选择退出养老金缴纳计划变成了默认选项。没有人被迫缴纳，尽管该计划明显让雇员们获利，但如果他们不想加入养老金计划，就要自己选择退出计划。[考研题源报刊]

By any objective measure, this has been a tremendous success. When the pandemic struck in 2020, more than 90% of eligible private-sector workers in the UK were members of workplace schemes. It’s not hard to see why: Even on the minimum setting, an employee’s contribution of 4% of eligible earnings is matched by a further 3% from their employer and 1% of tax relief from the government. Many employers even offer to match their employees’ contribution to higher levels, so it is a significant decision to forgo this “free” money.

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从任何客观的维度衡量，这都已经取得了巨大的成功。2020年疫情爆发时，英国90%以上的符合条件的私营部门工作者都是职工养老金计划的一员。原因不难理解：即使是在最低的标准下，员工按符合条件的收入的4%进行缴纳，雇主也会再缴纳3%，并从政府中获得1%的税收减免。许多雇主甚至会根据员工的贡献按更高的水平进行缴纳，所以放弃这笔“免费”的钱是一个重大的决定。[考研题源报刊]

A parallel issue facing workers is that those older than 55 have been drawing more down from their pensions than in the past, often in lump sums and frequently while they are still working. Those flexibly withdrawing from pension plans jumped by 23% in the second quarter of 2022 compared to a year earlier. It’s impossible to say exactly what the money has been spent on, but it’s easy to imagine that at least some of it has gone to rising bills and mortgage repayments.

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与此同时工作者们面对的另一个问题是，55岁以上的人提取的养老金数额比过去多了许多，他们经常在尚未退休时领取他们的养老金，且往往是一次性取出。与一年前相比，2022年第二季度从养老金计划中灵活提取的人猛增了23%。我们不可能知道这些钱到底花在了什么地方，但很容易想象，至少有一部分花在了上涨的账单（物价）和抵押贷款的还款上。[考研题源报刊]

  众所周知，历年考研英语试题都是选自西方主流报刊杂志，比如《The Guardian》（卫报），《Time》（时代周刊），《The Atlantic》（美国大西洋月刊），《Newsweek》（新闻周刊），《The New York Times》（纽约时报），《The Washington Post》（华盛顿邮报）。

     所以把他们作为练习阅读的材料是有一定帮助的：可以作为阅读背景和写作材料、积累单词、积累句式以及积累语法结构等。