Transition from work into retirement.
Date: 2008-12-16
Institutions: Eurostat
Subjects: EU statistics, employment statistics, pension scheme, retirement conditions, statistical method

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M e t h o d o l o g i e s  a n d 
W o r k i n g   p a p e r s

Transition from work into

 retirement 

2008 edition

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ISBN 978-92-79-07850-7
ISSN 1977-0375
Cat. No. KS-RA-08-01 -EN-N

2

Theme: Population and social conditions
Collection: Methodologies and working papers 

© European Communities, 2008

 
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Table of contents 

1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

7 

Introduction 

Policy background and focus of the ad hoc module 2006 

Executive summary 

General description of the ad hoc module 

Quality of the survey 

Implementation,  cross  country  comparability  and  recommendations  for  the  repetition 
of the module 

Dissemination in Eurostat Database 

Annex 1:  National conditions on retirement 

Annex 2:  Data frequencies – Module 2006 

Annex 3:  List of variables – Module 2006 

Annex 4:  Explanatory  notes  for  LFS  2006  ad  hoc  module  on  transition  from  work  into 

retirement 

Annex 5:  Draft proposal for a questionnaire for the LFS 2006 ad hoc module on transition from 

work into retirement 

Annex 6:  Codification in order to obtain the variables for the LFS module 2006 

2 

2 

4 

4 

6 

12 

32 

33 

38 

46 

48 

56 

60 

1

 
 
 
 
 
 
1 

Introduction 

The meeting of the Task Force on the Evaluation of the 2006 LFS ad hoc module on 'transition form work into 
retirement'  took  place  on  the  28  /29  November  2007.  Besides  staff  from  Eurostat  the  Task  Force  consisted  of 
experts  from  the  National  Statistical  Offices  of  Estonia,  Ireland,  Greece,  France,  Italy,  Finland  and  United 
Kingdom. The main objective of this report is to assess the implementation of the ad hoc module 2006 and make 
recommendations for the repetition of the module in 2012. In addition, this report provides information about the 
quality of the data set and gives a first impression about the results of the module. 

This  report  is  based  on  27  quality  reports,  the  national  questionnaires,  the  interviewer  instructions  (which  are 
mostly  available  in  English)  and  the  final  grant  reports  provided  by  20  countries.  It  was  the  third  time  that 
Eurostat  used  a  standardised  form  for  the  quality  report  of  the  ad  hoc  modules.  These  quality  reports  contain 
information about the implementation of the ad hoc module as well as quality estimates. In addition, the experts 
from the national statistical offices (the members of the Task Force) provided contributions for the report.  

The report is organised in 7 sections. Following the introduction, section two gives a summary about the policy 
background of the survey. The third section – the executive summary – informs about the main findings and the 
recommendations  of  the  Task  Force  members.  Based  on  the  quality  reports,  the  fourth  section  contains  the 
general  description  of  the  ad  hoc  module  and  the  fifth  section  provides  information  about  the  quality  of  the 
module. Section six contains detailed information about implementation of the module, a discussion of the main 
problems as well as a graphical presentation of the results. Section seven describes the dissemination structure. 
Further information is collected in the annexes. Annex 1 contains information on national retirement legislation, 
annex  2  data  frequencies,  annex  3  the  list  of  variables,  annex  4  the  explanatory  notes,  annex  5  the  proposed 
questionnaire and annex 6 the codification of the variables.  

2 

Policy background and focus of the ad hoc module 2006 

The Stockholm and Barcelona targets on employment and participation 

The  Stockholm  European  Council  conclusions  (March  2001)  stressed  the  need  to  meet  the  challenges  of  an 
ageing society and agreed "...to set an EU target for increasing the average EU employment rate among older 
women and men (55-64) to 50 % by 2010".  

The Barcelona European Council (March 2002) endorsed a policy approach on how to progress in achieving the 
Stockholm target on older workers and concluded that "a progressive increase of about 5 years in the effective 
average age at which people stop working in the European Union should be sought by 2010".  

Joint Report by the Commission and the Council on adequate and sustainable pensions, adopted by the Council 
on 6-7 March 2003 

Objective 5 of the 11 common objectives in the area of adequate and sustainable pensions that were fixed at the 
Laeken European Council of December 2001 indicates that “MS should … ensure that, alongside labour market 
and economic  policies, all relevant branches of social protection, in particular pension systems, offer effective 
incentives for the participation of older workers; that workers are not encouraged to take up early retirement and 
are not penalised for staying in the labour market beyond the standard retirement age; and that pension systems 
facilitate the option of gradual retirement". 

Based on the examination of the national strategy reports submitted by Member States in September 2002, the 
Report  concludes  that  working  longer  represents  an  important  way  of  increasing  employment  rates  in  general 
and, thus, a major contribution to improving the financial sustainability in a context of demographic ageing. The 
Report  focuses  on  the  financial  incentives  to  retire  early  and  on  the  need  to  review  incentive  effects  of 
tax/benefit systems with a view to making them more employment-friendly.  

The  Report  from  the  Commission  and  the  Council  on  "Increasing  labour-force  participation  and  promoting 
active ageing", adopted by the Council on 7 March 2002 

Submitted  to  the  Barcelona  summit,  it  puts  forward  a  life  cycle  approach  to  ensure  that  present  and  future 
working generations remain in employment as they grow older and highlights ways to increase and prolong the 
participation  of  today's  older  workers.  The  report  calls  for  the  development  and  implementation  by  Member 
States of comprehensive strategies in five areas:  

More jobs and better quality in work: Providing a safe, attractive and adaptable work environment will have a 
particularly  important  influence  on  the  decision  of  older  workers  to  stay  in  a  job  and  in  the  labour  market. 
Facilitating a more gradual move into retirement can be encouraged by, for example, the promotion of part-time 
work.  Moreover,  an  improved  work  environment,  safer  working  conditions,  more  flexible  working  time 
arrangements and in particular access to training will have a positive impact on labour productivity. 

2

 
Making  work  pay:  A  targeted  review  of  tax/benefit  systems  to  enhance  work  incentives  for  older  workers  is 
needed. Emphasis should be placed on removing incentives encouraging early retirement and instead encourage 
experienced workers to stay longer at work by financially rewarding them for longer service.  

Higher  and  adaptable  skills  at  work:  Continuing  to update  skills  throughout  working  life  is  critical  for  raising 
participation  and  keeping  older  workers  in  work  longer.  The  widening  gap  in  the  take–up  of  education  and 
training  between  older  and  younger  age  groups  gives  cause  for  serious  concern.  Providing  genuine  lifelong 
learning for older workers requires a general increase in adult education and training, including a catching-up of 
those aged 55-64 in terms of access to training (currently, those aged 25-34 are nearly five times more likely to 
take part in education and training than those aged 55-64).  

Making work a real option for all: A change of attitudes of employers is essential to recognise better the potential 
of older workers and to fight discrimination. The Public Employment Services have an important role to play in 
supporting  older  workers  to  find  work,  and  in  directly  tackling  employers'  negative  attitudes.  Increasing  the 
availability and affordability of quality healthcare and eldercare facilities will help to break down labour market 
barriers for older workers with care responsibilities.  

A partnership approach: Public authorities cannot succeed in implementing this approach without support from a 
wide  range  of  partners.  Social  partners  and  employers  need  to  develop  working  conditions  appropriate  to 
keeping  older  workers  in  work.  The  report  recommends  joint  Government/Social  partners'  initiatives  to  retain 
workers  longer  in  employment:  this  should  focus  in  particular  on  access  to  company  training  and  improving 
working conditions and work organisation.  

The Employment Guidelines 2003 

Guideline  5  commits  Member  States  to:  “…  promote  active  ageing,  notably  by  fostering  working  conditions 
conducive to job retention - such as access to continuing training, recognising the special importance of health 
and safety at work, innovative and flexible forms of work organisation - and eliminating incentives for early exit 
from the labour market, notably by reforming early retirement schemes and ensuring that it pays to remain active 
in the labour market; and encouraging employers to employ older workers.” 

In addition, it highlights that “… policies will aim to achieve by 2010 an increase by 5 years, at EU level, of the 
effective average exit age from the labour market (estimated at 59,9 in 2001)” and that “In this respect, the social 
partners have an important role to play.” 

Furthermore, Guideline 8 commits Member States to: “… review and, where appropriate, reform tax and benefit 
systems  and  their  interaction  with  a  view  to  eliminating  unemployment,  poverty  and  inactivity  traps,  and 
encouraging the participation of women, low skilled workers, older workers, people with disabilities and those 
furthest from the labour market in employment.“ 

Focus of the ad hoc module 2006 

According to the explanatory notes for the 2006 ad hoc module the first aim was to know how the transition at 
the end of the career towards full retirement is expected to take place, takes place or took place: 

• 

• 

plans for transitions/past transitions towards full retirement 

plans for exit from work 

The second aim was to know which factors would be/were at play in determining the exit from work, and which 
factors could make/could have made persons postpone the exit from work: 

•  working conditions factors (health and safety at the workplace, flexible working time arrangements 

…) 

• 

• 

• 

other factors linked to work (training/obsolescence of skills …) 

financial factors (financial incentives to remain at work or to exit) 

personal factors (health, family reasons …) 

Note:  The  core  LFS  gives  information  on  previous  job  characteristics  (economic  activity,  occupation  …)  for 
exits up to 8 years ago. 

3

 
 
 
3 

Executive summary 

The ad hoc module 2006 on 'transition from work into retirement' is specified by Commission Regulation (EC) 
No 388/2005 of 8 March 2005. It was the first time that an ad hoc module focussed on topics about transition 
from work into retirement. On overall the implementation of the module faced substantial problems. The topic 
transition into retirement is influenced by national legislation, which varies considerably among Member States. 
It is therefore difficult to be tackled by a European wide survey.  

In detail the Task Force members pointed out that a lot of background information was necessary to attain the 
aims of the module. First of all, there is a complex legislation behind the issues of retirement. In each country 
there  are  a  lot  of  exceptional  rules  or  differences  for  groups  of  persons  (women  and  men,  disability,  early 
retirement, pensions and company pensions, …) or occupations (army, police, …) which have to be known for 
questionnaire  design  and  the  analysis  of  the  module.  In  addition  in  some  Member  States  the  pension  system 
underwent massive reforms in recent years. This caused a lot of strain to questionnaire design as both old and 
new and also all special regulations during the transitional phase had to be taken into account. Other problems 
are that in some countries it is common that persons receiving a retirement pension are nevertheless working and 
that the concept of retirement applies often to the main job. In this case, the explanatory notes were not precise 
enough  with  respect  to  the  definition  of  "persons  in  retirement"  and  further  investigation  will  be  required. 
Furthermore it was pointed out that persons often do not know about their retirement plans; especially in times of 
changing  legislation.  For  the  repetition  of  the  module,  it  should  be  necessary  to  clarify  the  above  mentioned 
issues.  

Concerning the design of the questionnaire many countries decided to split the questionnaires and to ask working 
persons and persons not working (unemployed or inactive) for some variables separately. This approach should 
be used for the repetition. The questionnaire seems not be appropriate to grasp the situation of some groups such 
as  self-employed  persons.  For  example  the  variables  FLEXWORK  (flexible  working  time  arrangements), 
OPPSKILL (opportunities to update skills) and HLTHSAF (health/safety at workplace) seem not to be suitable 
for  unemployed  persons  or  persons  in  retirement.  Some  countries  pointed  out  that  the  response  categories  of 
some  of  the  variables  were  either  too detailed  or  inappropriate.  The  Task  Force  also discussed  the need of  an 
analysis of proxy answers.  

As  concerns  the  explanatory  notes,  the  Task  Force  members  recognised  that  they  didn't  always  give  suitable 
guidance for questionnaire design and interviewer instructions. For example, the term "retirement pension" can 
be understood in different ways (statutory pension, company pension, or pension from insurance). However, the 
Explanatory notes relied on ESSPROS-definitions1 which are appropriate for administrative data collection but 
not  for  surveys.  For  the  repetition  of  the  ad  hoc  module  in  2012  an  improvement  of  the  explanatory  notes  is 
necessary.  

4 

General description of the ad hoc module 

The  ad  hoc  module  2006  was  accomplished  by  all  EU-27  Member  States  as  well  as  Norway.  Most  of  the 
countries  conducted  the  module  in  the  second  quarter  of  2006:  Belgium,  Bulgaria,  Denmark,  Ireland,  Greece, 
Italy,  Cyprus,  Latvia,  Lithuania,  Hungary,  Malta,  Poland,  Portugal,  Romania,  Slovenia,  Slovakia,  and  United 
Kingdom.  While  the  other  countries  spread  the  reference  weeks  over  the  whole  year.  One  exception  was  the 
Netherlands which conducted the survey in the first quarter of 2006. 

The target group of the module consisted of all persons aged between 50 and 69 (who either worked or didn't 
work and worked at least up to the age of 50). Every respondent of this age group in the respective survey period 
(quarter  or  all  quarters  of  the  year)  constituted  the  sample  for  the  module  in  most  of  the  countries,  with  the 
exception  of  Czech  Republic,  Germany,  France,  Hungary,  Austria,  Finland,  and  Sweden,  which  used  sub-
samples of the core LFS. 

Participation  in  the  module  was  compulsory  in  Belgium,  Spain,  France,  Italy,  Cyprus,  Malta,  Portugal  and 
Slovakia. In all other countries the participation was voluntary. 

The topics of the module were not closely related to the core question of the LFS. This could be the reason why 
most  of  the  countries  added  the  ad  hoc  module  questionnaire  after  the  core  questionnaire.  Italy,  Malta,  the 
Netherlands and United Kingdom integrated it into the LFS core questionnaire.  

More  than  half  of  the  participating  countries  (17)  conducted  a  pilot  survey,  a  pre-test  or  a  laboratory  test 
(Bulgaria,  Czech  Republic,  Denmark,  Estonia,  France,  Ireland,  Italy,  Cyprus,  Lithuania,  Hungary,  Austria, 
Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Finland and United Kingdom). On the other hand Greece, Latvia, Malta, 
and  Norway  did  not  test  the  module  questionnaire  in  advance.  All  other  countries  didn't  provide  information 
about pre-tests for the module.  

1 ESSPROS: European System of integrated Social Protection Statistics 

4

 
                                                   
Burden 

The burden of an ad hoc module is a function of many factors, both subjective and objective. Subjective factors 
can be the relevance of the questions to the situation of the respondent, or the sensitivity of the questions. It is 
not possible to assess these factors in this report. Objective factors are more readily estimated by measuring the 
average  number  of  minutes  the  respondent  is  subjected  to  questioning.  This  single  measurement  depends, 
however, on several other factors like the number of questions put to the respondent, the clarity of the questions 
and the ease of answering (such as the number of categories). 

The quality report asked for the average number of minutes required for collecting information for the ad hoc 
module  2006.  As  it  was  not  clear  which  time  span  (overall  interview  time  or  interview  time  for  the  ad  hoc 
module) should have been used, the results are not comparable. The thirteen replying countries gave a range of 3 
to 20 minutes.  

Table 1 shows the number of persons (in thousand) answering the questions, in the quarter(s) during which the 
data for the ad hoc module were collected. 

Table 1. Number of persons answering in the EU-LFS AHM 2006 

Col. 
240 

Col. 
241/2 

Col. 
243 

Col. 
244 

Col. 
245 

Col. 
246 

Col. 
247 

Col. 
248/9 

Col. 
250 

Col. 
251 

Col. 
252/3 

BE  

4,401 

4,401 

2,091 

855 

4,401 

4,401 

4,401 

4,400 

2,091 

217 

4,400 

BG  

7,995 

4,365 

3,648 

8,021 

8,021 

8,021 

8,019 

4,365 

495 

8,008 

CZ   12,857 

12,850 

6,329 

4,976 

12,822  12,846  12,846 

12,858 

6,330 

887 

12,823 

DK   3,287 

3,334 

1,140 

656 

3,219 

3,266 

3,266 

3,362 

1,152 

811 

3,300 

DE   5,240 

13,033 

5,487 

3,297 

12,417  12,404  12,360 

12,245 

5,430 

3,954 

11,696 

EE  

4,399 

4,397 

1,647 

984 

4,399 

4,399 

4,399 

4,398 

1,647 

671 

4,385 

IE  

10,768 

10,455 

2,779 

1,842 

9,168 

9,168 

9,168 

10,564 

2,894 

2,005 

10,355 

EL   13,483 

13,452 

5,704 

4,453 

12,459  12,553  12,371 

13,011 

5,215 

1,770 

13,385 

ES   16,402 

16,457 

6,931 

2,284 

14,881  15,096  15,208 

16,536 

6,909 

2,648 

15,058 

FR   10,393 

9,512 

5,005 

2,953 

9,479 

10,485 

9,538 

10,486 

5,010 

960 

10,477 

IT  

31,283 

31,527 

15,541  10,680  30,790  30,941  30,986 

30,567 

14,430 

2,403 

29,810 

CY   1,742 

1,742 

LV  

955 

581 

LT  

2,029 

2,029 

611 

374 

904 

294 

1,742 

1,742 

1,742 

1,742 

268 

953 

954 

955 

929 

588 

2,029 

2,029 

2,029 

2,029 

611 

374 

904 

167 

1,742 

135 

955 

168 

2,029 

LU   3,465 

3,468 

1,657 

1,189 

3,463 

3,466 

3,467 

3,467 

1,649 

90 

3,464 

HU   16,828 

16,828 

9,446 

6,399 

16,828  16,828  16,828 

16,698 

9,426 

822 

16,827 

MT  

822 

823 

345 

274 

823 

823 

823 

822 

345 

36 

822 

NL   20,457 

20,474 

5,705 

3,274 

19,064  19,371  19,380 

20,474 

6,322 

1,838 

20,219 

AT   6,754 

6,754 

3,537 

2,528 

6,754 

6,754 

6,754 

6,754 

3,537 

363 

6,751 

PL  

9,503 

9,503 

5,030 

2,643 

9,503 

9,503 

9,503 

9,503 

5,030 

793 

7,483 

PT  

9,446 

9,485 

3,603 

1,848 

9,457 

9,463 

9,468 

9,449 

3,598 

2,235 

9,410 

RO   13,987 

13,987 

6,268 

5,313 

13,987  13,987  13,987 

13,987 

6,268 

3,864 

13,986 

SI  

2,151 

3,909 

1,800 

1,147 

3,909 

3,909 

3,909 

3,909 

1,800 

286 

3,909 

SK  

6,183 

6,183 

3,432 

2,719 

6,181 

6,181 

6,181 

6,183 

3,432 

350 

6,179 

5

 
 
 
Col. 
240 

Col. 
241/2 

Col. 
243 

Col. 
244 

Col. 
245 

Col. 
246 

Col. 
247 

Col. 
248/9 

Col. 
250 

Col. 
251 

Col. 
252/3 

FI  

7,206 

7,168 

2,884 

1,145 

7,031 

7,031 

7,031 

6,869 

2,898 

410 

7,063 

SE   11,275 

13,070 

2,343 

1,294 

12,866  12,858  12,919 

12,730 

2,329 

3,408 

13,092 

UK   22,160 

22,673 

7,938 

4,916 

22,002  22,118  22,148 

22,093 

7,906 

4,496 

21,845 

NO   4,687 

4,610 

957 

351 

4,328 

4,404 

4,345 

4,642 

955 

468 

4,654 

Note: Unweighted results. 

5 

Quality of the survey 

With the final report for the 2004 ad hoc module Eurostat introduced a concept of quality consisting of 6 main 
indicators:  relevance,  accuracy,  timeliness  and  punctuality,  accessibility  and  clarity,  comparability  and 
consistency.  
Relevance and non-response 

Generally, the unit non-response - calculated for those answered to the core LFS - is rather low among member 
states (see Table 2). Beside those countries with 0% rate (8 countries), there are very low rates (under 1 % in 12 
countries), and the rest of the countries show 1-10% rate (7 countries) with the exception of AT, which had the 
highest rate (13.16%).  

Table 2. Unit non-response (%) in the EU-LFS AHM 2006 

BE   7.81 

BG   7.27 

CZ   0.01 

DK   5.14 

DE   9.75 

EE   0.00 

IE   0.01 

GR   0.00 

ES   0.17 

FR   0.08 

IT   0.09 

CY   0.00 

LV   4.69 

LT   0.00 

LU   0.29 

HU   2.94  MT   0.96 

NL   0.00 

AT   13.16 

PL   0.18 

PT   0.00 

RO   0.00 

SI   0.05 

SK   0.75 

FI   0.00 

SE   0.01 

UK   5.95 

NO   0.08 

Unweighted results. Share of records with all ad hoc module variables coded blank of all persons in the target 
group (this value refers to the processed file and not necessarily the original target group). 

With  respect  to  the  item  non-response  there  are  some  country  specific  effects.  Within  some  the  participating 
countries, the unit non-response is rather low, but item non-response rates are high. For analysing the item non-
response it is necessary to take into account country specific characteristics (e.g. filtering and interpretation of 
the questionnaire). Table 3 provides the information on item non-response.  

6

 
 
 
. 

. 

0.34 

7.77 

Table 3. Item non-response (%) in the EU-LFS AHM 2006 

Col. 
240 

Col. 
241/2 

Col. 
243 

Col. 
244 

Col. 
245 

Col. 
246 

Col. 
247 

Col. 
248/9 

Col. 
250 

Col. 
251 

Col. 
252/3 

BE  

7.81 

7.81 

10.30 

BG  

10. 

7.58 

6.75 

CZ  

0.09 

0.14 

0.03 

. 

. 

. 

7.81 

7.81 

7.81 

7.83 

10.30 

. 

7.83 

7.28 

7.28 

7.28 

7.31 

6.75 

0.20 

7.43 

0.36 

0.17 

0.17 

0.08 

0.02 

DK  

8.13 

6.82 

8.36 

0.30 

10.03 

8.72 

8.72 

6.04 

7.40 

DE  

65.82 

14.98 

20.81 

4.07 

19.00 

19.09 

19.37 

20.12 

21.63 

28.59 

23.71 

EE  

. 

0.05 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

0.02 

. 

. 

0.32 

IE  

0.40 

3.29 

5.41 

1.02 

15.20 

15.20 

15.20 

2.28 

1.50 

16.04 

4.20 

EL  

3.82 

4.04 

5.67 

0.40 

11.13 

10.46 

11.76 

7.19 

13.76 

. 

4.52 

ES  

1.79 

1.46 

1.10 

1.25 

10.90 

9.61 

8.94 

0.99 

1.41 

4.20 

9.63 

FR  

1.01 

9.40 

0.10 

. 

9.72 

0.13 

9.15 

0.12 

. 

12.49 

0.13 

IT  

2.87 

2.11 

2.72 

0.45 

4.40 

3.93 

3.79 

5.09 

9.67 

1.31 

7.38 

CY  

. 

. 

. 

LV  

4.69 

42.02 

7.88 

LT  

. 

. 

. 

LU  

0.37 

0.29 

0.36 

HU  

2.96 

2.96 

3.04 

MT  

1.08 

0.96 

2.27 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

4.89 

4.79 

4.69 

7.29 

7.88 

. 

. 

. 

4.69 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

6.15 

. 

0.43 

0.35 

0.32 

0.32 

0.84 

2.96 

2.96 

2.96 

3.71 

3.24 

0.96 

0.96 

0.96 

1.08 

2.27 

. 

. 

. 

0.40 

2.96 

0.96 

NL  

0.08 

. 

9.99 

0.12 

6.89 

5.39 

5.34 

. 

0.25 

0.54 

1.25 

AT  

13.18 

13.18 

12.88 

PL  

0.86 

0.86 

0.73 

PT  

0.41 

RO 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

SI  

45.00 

0.05 

0.06 

SK  

0.75 

0.75 

1.21 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

13.18 

13.18 

13.18 

13.18 

12.88 

0.86 

0.86 

0.86 

0.86 

0.73 

. 

. 

13.16 

21.92 

0.30 

0.23 

0.18 

0.38 

0.14 

0.13 

0.79 

. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

0.05 

0.05 

0.05 

0.05 

0.06 

0.79 

0.79 

0.79 

0.75 

1.21 

. 

. 

. 

. 

0.05 

0.82 

FI  

. 

0.53 

1.30 

1.38 

2.43 

2.43 

2.43 

4.68 

0.82 

27.82 

1.90 

SE  

14.80 

1.24 

0.38 

. 

2.78 

2.84 

2.38 

3.81 

0.98 

5.65 

1.07 

UK  

8.12 

5.99 

8.06 

0.12 

8.77 

8.29 

8.17 

8.40 

8.43 

0.38 

9.42 

NO  

0.74 

2.37 

0.21 

. 

8.34 

6.73 

7.98 

1.69 

0.42 

. 

1.44 

Unweighted results. Share of blank answers (or incorrect 9) of all eligible answers according to the relevant filter 
(this value refers to the processed file and not necessarily the original target group).  

The  calculation  method  described  above  does  not  capture  the  magnitude  of  item  non  response  in  case  of 
imputation.  For  example  France,  Malta,  Slovenia  used  imputation  for  some  of  the  variables,  Austria  for  all 
variables.  

Within the evaluation process the countries were asked to provide information about reasons for high item non-
response. The Table below summarize the comments (by variable).  

7

 
 
 
Table 4: Reasons for high item non-response 

Country  Explanation 

Col.240 (REDUCHRS, Person reduced working hours) 
BG 

DE 

SI 
SE 
UK 

Not included in the national questionnaire. Progressive retirement scheme and part-time pension are 
not available in our country 
No explanation for high non response, maybe it is a very sensitive and/or difficult variable which 
should not be surveyed anymore. Variable is not suitable for proxy-interviews. 
No explanation for high non response, 
No explanation for high non response, 
There are 2 reasons for the high level of item non-response. Firstly, there were 1420 cases where 
the respondent did not complete an interview in the AJ06 quarter but remained in the dataset 
because they took part in the previous quarter. These people were not asked the ad hoc module 
questions and therefore appear as blanks. The second reason is that the "Before stopping all paid 
work, did you reduce your working hours or take a part-time job in a move towards full retirement" 
was not asked of the 327 retired people who were exactly 50 years old when they last worked. 
People who retired over the age of 50 were, however, correctly routed to this question. 

Col.241/242 (PLAGESTP, Planned age for stopping all work) 
DE 

Normal non response-rate; provision of information is voluntary! Variable is unsuitable for proxy-
interviews. 
In Latvia question "At which age do you plan to stop all work for pay or profit?" was asked only to 
employed persons. 

LV 

Col.243 (STATAFT, Main labour status after job) 
DE 
NL 

Normal non response-rate; provision of information is voluntary!  
For persons who have started in their last job less than 2 years ago it is only known if they stopped 
because of VUT/pension, so it is not asked after the exact reason. Those persons are coded blank. 
From January to December 628 of the 633 concern such cases. So for almost all blanks the exact 
labour status after leaving the last job is not known although it is known that is was not “retirement 
or early retirement”. 

Col.245 (FLEXWORK, Flexible working time arrangements) 
DK 
DE 
IE 
EL 

No explanation for high non response. 
Normal non response-rate; provision of information is voluntary!  
No explanation for high non response. 
Probably it was not easy for people to answer what they would do in a "hypothetical" situation, 
especially if they did not have thought about it before. An indication that this was a problem is that 
the “combination” of the answers in the three questions (Col. 245, Col.246 and Col.247), non 
response rate is about 8%-that is, many people have an idea about one or two of the factors, but not 
for all. 
There are 1815 records that appear in blank. From them, 1788 correspond to "Doesn´t Know" 
answers and the 27 remainder correspond to records that, as we explain in the final report, have no 
information in the module variables due to the fact that the filter conditions were modified 
subsequently to collection as a result of survey editing to eliminate inconsistencies between 
variables. 
This question was not put to people who had lost their last job (lay-off, bankruptcy) because it led 
to tricky situations during the first test of the questionnaire. Apart from that (942 persons), the non-
response rate is rather satisfactory: 0.7%. 

ES 

FR 

Col.246 (OPPSKILL, Opportunities to update skills) 
DE 
IE 
EL 

Normal non response-rate; provision of information is voluntary!  
No explanation for high non response. 
Probably it was not easy for people to answer what they would do in a "hypothetical" situation, 
especially if they did not have thought about it before.  
There are 1601 records that appear in blank. From them, 1574 correspond to "Doesn´t Know" 
answers and the 27 remainder correspond to records that, as we explain in the final report, have no 
information in the module variables due to the fact that the filter conditions were modified 
subsequently to collection as a result of survey editing to eliminate inconsistencies between 
variables  

ES 

Col.247 (HLTHSAF, Health/safety at workplace) 
DE 
IE 

Normal non response-rate; provision of information is voluntary!  
No explanation for high non response. 

8

 
EL 

Probably it was not easy for people to answer what they would do in a "hypothetical" situation, 
especially if they did not have thought about it before.  

Col.248/249 (AGEPENS, Age to start retirement pension) 
DE 

Normal non response-rate; provision of information is voluntary!  

Col.250 (OTHBENF, Other pensions/benefits) 
DE 
EL 
IT 

Normal non response-rate; provision of information is voluntary!  
Questions of financial character (additional income, etc) are not easily answered by people. 
Item 3 of this variable is the result of a mix of previous variables.  

FI 

Col.251 (FININCTV, Financial incentive to stay at work) 
DE 
IE 
FR 

Difficult question with difficult answers, unsuitable for proxy-interviews. 
No explanation for high non response. 
This question was not put to people who were working AND receiving a retirement pension, hence 
the missing values. 
The high non-response in this variable consists mostly of persons receiving part-time pension. FI 
didn't ask about the main financial incentive to stay at work if a person was receiving a part-time 
pension. FI saw part-time pension as a mean to shorten one's working hours and change from full-
time work to part-time work. FI didn't consider part-time pension as an option for non-employment 
(retirement included). As most people work to earn their living, we first considered to impute code 
'2' (to provide sufficient household income) for all part-time pension receivers. At the end FI 
decided to leave them blank in this variable. 

Col.252/253 (YEARSPNT, Number of working years) 
DE 
ES 

Normal non response-rate; provision of information is voluntary! Unsuitable for proxy-interviews. 
There are 1604 records that appear in blank. From them, 1577 correspond to "Doesn´t Know" 
answers and the 27 remainder correspond to records that, as we explain in the final report, have no 
information in the module variables due to the fact that the filter conditions were modified 
subsequently to collection as a result of survey editing to eliminate inconsistencies between 
variables  
Considering the fact that we would like to reduce burdening our respondents with a large number of 
additional questions, in the Polish version of the ad hoc module we resigned from asking the 
questions about "the number of years spent in work for pay or profit (during working life)". 
Information concerning this variable is taken from the questions included in the ZD questionnaire. 
A high level of non-response rate is in this case caused by the fact that in the Polish Labour Force 
Survey questions regarding "the number of years spent working" did not concern the persons who 
have not worked for 8 years or longer. 
There are 2 factors that account for the high level of non-response. Firstly, there were 1420 cases 
where the respondent did not complete an interview in the AJ06 quarter but remained in the dataset 
because they took part in the previous quarter. These people were not asked the ad hoc module 
questions and therefore appear as blanks. The second reason is that the appropriate question was not 
asked of the 327 retired people who were exactly 50 years old when they last worked. People who 
retired over the age of 50 were, however, correctly routed to this question.  

PL 

UK 

9

 
 
Proxy interviews 

The number of proxy interviews is a criterion for the quality of a survey. A comparison of the unweighted shares 
of proxy-interviews for the target group of the ad hoc module with the share calculated for the overall core LFS 
shows significantly lower shares for the ad hoc module target group. Due to the fact that the specific age class of 
the  ad  hoc  module  consists  of  older  persons  (50-69)  which  are  easier  to  reach,  this  result  is  not  surprising. 
Generally low shares of proxy-interviews improve the overall quality of surveys. Although the share of proxies 
for  the  ad  hoc  module  target  group  is  lower  some  of  the  countries  still  reach  shares  ranging  from  20  to  40 
percent. A further reduction will be highly desirable, especially given the fact that some of the variables measure 
attitudes.  

Figure 1: Share of proxy interviews 

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

BE  BG  CZ  DK  DE  EE 

IE  EL  ES  FR 

IT  CY  LV  LT  LU  HU  MT  NL  AT  PL  PT  RO  SI  SK  FI  SE  UK  NO 

Note. Unweighted shares are calculated by using variable PROXY which measures number of proxy-interviews 
in the core LFS (2006 data). For ES, UK, NO the target population is 16-74. 

Core LFS (50-69) Core LFS (15-74)

Accuracy 

With the exception of Ireland and Luxemburg all counties provided information about the relative standard error 
(coefficient of variation) for selected variables. Due to the reason that for the variable Col.240 (REDUCHRS,-
Person  reduced  working  hours)  some  countries  didn’t  used  all  response  items  the  relative  standard  errors  are 
incomplete.  Note,  the  relative  standard  errors  has  been  reformulated  in  terms  of  confidence  limits  for  the 
statistics in question, in order to provide better clarity to the reader. 

10

 
 
 
Table 5. Estimates and confidence limits, at a level of confidence of 95%, for selected number of statistics in the 
EU-LFS AHM 2006 

Number of persons aged 50 to 
69 which reduced working 
hours in a progressive 
retirement scheme/part-time 
pension (C240 = 1)  
(in thousand) 

Average planned age for 
stopping all work for pay or 
profit (C241/242) 

Number of persons aged 50 to 
69 which receive a disability 
pension or a sick pension 
(C250 = 1) 
(in thousand) 

BE 
BG 
CZ 
DK 
DE 
EE 
EL 
ES 
FR 
IE 
IT 
CY 
LV 
LT 
LU 
HU 
MT 
NL 
AT 
PL 
PT 
RO 
SI 
SK 
FI 
SE 
UK 
NO 

70.1 
n.a. 
n.a. 
20.4 
1,138.3 
n.a. 
n.a. 
44.6 
350.5 
n.a. 
16.8 
n.a. 
1.2 
6.2 
n.a. 
n.a. 
2 
130 
58.7 
n.a. 
n.a. 
29.2 
12.4 
n.a. 
71.8 
25.9 
54.2 
82.6 

±11.9 

±5.3 
±77.5 

±10.5 
±12.7 

±5.4 

±1.3 
±3.5 

±0.7 
±8.2 
±7.9 

±8.9 
±2.3 

±6.5 
±6.6 
±10.3 
±8.9 

62.0 
63.0 
61.7 
63.10 
63.7 
65.0 
59.0 
63.4 
60.2 
n.a. 
63.4 
64.4 
63.0 
62.7 
n.a. 
61.0 
60.0 
63.0 
61.0 
62.0 
n.a. 
64.1 
60.0 
63.0 
63.0 
64.3 
63.0 
63.9 

±0.21 
±0.12 
±0.01 
±0.12 
±0.08 
±2.29 
±0.001 
±0.09 
±3.34 

±0.06 
±0.15 
±0.35 
±0.25 

±0.10 
±0.24 
±0.14 
±0.11 
±0.15 

±0.13 
±0.31 
±0.15 
±0.09 
±0.05 
±0.06 
±0.88 

48.0 
68.7 
82.1 
47.2 
138.5 
9.4 
33.4 
248.6 
152.5 
n.a. 
178.7 
2.9 
8.6 
40.3 
n.a. 
97.2 
2.5 
60.0 
59.8 
362.8 
119.2 
171.3 
16.1 
30.3 
78.8 
42.3 
n.a. 
100.7 

±9.7 
±7.6 
±6.1 
±8.2 
±26.3 
±2.1 
±4.5 
±23.0 
±5.1 

±17.4 
±0.9 
±4.2 
±8.8 

±7.8 
±0.7 
±5.8 
±7.0 
±31.0 
±12.1 
±17.8 
±2.8 
±4.3 
±6.3 
±7.5 

±12.2 

Timeliness and punctuality 

According to Commission Regulation (EC) No 246/2003 of 10 February 2003 on a multi-annual program of ad 
hoc modules 2004-2006, the deadline for the transmission of results of the ad hoc module 2006 was 31 March 
2007.  Of  the  28  participating  countries,  27  delivered  the  data  on  time  while  Ireland  transmitted  the  data  files 
later.  

Some of the countries sent revisions after the initial transmission. Initial validation of the data sets was finished 
in October 2007. Due to the work of the Task Force a second round of validation was initiated in December with 
revised files from some countries transmitted in February 2008.  
Accessibility and clarity 

Results  based  on  the  data  from  the  ad  hoc  module  2006  will  be  published  in  the  Series  "Statistics  in  Focus". 
These  are  publicly  available  on  the  web-site  of  Eurostat.  Some  countries  have  already  published  results.  For 
example, the National Statistical Institutes of Belgium, Spain2 and Finland published the main results on national 

2 The information on the ad hoc module in Spain is provided on the web page 
http://www.ine.es/jaxi/changeLanguage.do?target=menu&download=0&multi=0&type=pcaxis&file=ine
base&print=1&page=menu&N=&path=/t22/e308_mnu&language=1 

11

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                                   
 
level.  Some  other  countries  analyze  the data  in 2008.  Typically,  these  documents  are available on  the  internet 
site of the National Statistical Institutes.  

Results will be in Eurostat Database by the end of 2008. All data published on the Eurostat web-site have meta-
data in the standard format of the IMF (SDDS). It is also possible to request customised frequency tables and 
limited cross-tabulations sets directly from Eurostat without charge. 
Consistency 

Due to a lack of comparable data sets in Europe it was not possible to check the consistency of the ad hoc data 
set at all 

Implementation, cross country comparability and recommendations for the 

6 
repetition of the module 

On  overall  most  of  the  Member  states  reported  problems  while  implementing  the  module.  The  more  general 
remarks for the ad hoc module were: 

•  There is a complex national legislation behind the issue of retirement, which has to be known for the 

analysis of the module.  

•  The ongoing reform process in some member states leads to problems to develop an appropriate 

questionnaire. 

•  There are problems with the definition of some key variables. For example persons can not easily 

distinguish “retirement” pensions from other pension schemes. 

•  Some of the variables were not appropriate for person's older persons (older 65 years) and long term 

unemployed persons. 

•  Some of the filters were too complicated filters, especially hard to apply in paper questionnaire.  

Several countries suggest improvements or changes in case of repetition of the ad hoc module. Some of these are 
of a rather general nature (and could be applied in any ad hoc module): 

•  To avoid hypothetical questions. 

•  To use the principle “1 question per variable”. 

•  Do not accept proxies. 

•  Get information on financial situation from registers. 

•  To test not only variables but also answering codes before adopting regulations. 

• 

Concerning the particular module it was suggested that: 

•  The lower age limit (for the time that people worked for the last time) should be less than 49. 

•  The module should be more “balanced” between self-employed and employees. 

•  Age class limits should be different to usual retirement ages, like 60 or 65. 

•  To use an “open answer” category or to include individual factors for  FLEXWORK (flexible 
working time arrangements), OPPSKILL (opportunities to update skills) and HLTHSAF 
(health/safety at workplace). 

•  To avoid questions on future plans. 

•  To avoid posing a question about future job in persons not in employment. 

•  To omit variables OTHBENF (Other pensions/benefits) and YEARSPNT (Number of working years) 

because they are difficult to answer. 

The specific remarks and recommendations by variables are summarized in the following paragraphs. 

REDUCHRS (Col.240) "reduction of working hours in a move to full retirement" 

With respect to the implementation of this variable a lot of countries (CY, DK, ES, FI, FR, GR, HU, LV, PL and 
UK)  split  the  questionnaire  into  employed  and  not  employed.  Then  they  asked  each  group  questions  aimed 
specifically  for  their  situation.  In  this  context  some  countries  pointed  out  that  the  variable  is  maybe  not 
appropriate for long term unemployed persons.  

12

 
 
 
 
Two main issues were reported on REDUCHRS. On the one hand, future plans were often not known, especially 
in case of changing legislation. It would make more sense to ask about real options for the next module. On the 
other  hand,  the  response  item  “Yes,  in  a  progressive  retirement  scheme/part-time  pension”  was  not  used  in 
several countries due to the non-existence of the underlying scheme. For a repetition of the module, the variable 
should  be  simplified  and  the  explanatory  notes  should  include  more  practical  examples  for  a  better 
understanding. It might also be sensible to split the respondents into employed and unemployed. 

The figures below show the main distribution within the countries for the groups of employed (Figure 1) and not 
employed persons (Figure 2). The table below provides some additional information by the National Statistical 
Institutes about the reasons for atypical patterns.  

Distribution AGEPENS for employed persons (WSTATOR=1,2) 

100%

90%

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

BE  BG  CZ  DK  DE  EE 

IE  EL  ES  FR 

IT  CY  LV  LT  LU  HU  MT  NL  AT  PL  PT  RO SI  SK  FI  SE  UK  NO 

No, and does not know about plans for the next 5 years or plans are not relevant
No, and plans not to do so within the next 5 years/did not do so
No, but plans to do so within the next 5 years
Yes, but not in a progressive retirement scheme/part-time pension
Yes, in a progressive retirement scheme/part-time pension

Distribution AGEPENS for not employed persons (WSTATOR=3,5) 

100%

90%

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

BE  BG  CZ  DK  DE  EE 

IE  EL  ES  FR 

IT  CY  LV  LT  LU  HU  MT  NL  AT  PL  PT  RO SI  SK  FI  SE  UK  NO 

No, and does not know about plans for the next 5 years or plans are not relevant
No, and plans not to do so within the next 5 years/did not do so
No, but plans to do so within the next 5 years
Yes, but not in a progressive retirement scheme/part-time pension
Yes, in a progressive retirement scheme/part-time pension

13

 
 
 
 
Problem 

Reason 

Country 

Item 

DE 

SI 

1 

1 

Employment 
status 
3,5 

3,5 

Comparatively 
high 
frequencies 
Only item 1 

Part-time pension does play an important role in 
Germany. 

The fact is that the progressive retirement scheme in 
combination with a part-time pension is not very 
widely spread in Slovenia so far. There are still a lot of 
cases when employees are forced to go into early 
retirement (they are unemployed for two years and then 
they proceed into retirement); this is a 'soft version of 
being laid-off'. In fact the figures SI got are not strange 
since they haven't reached that level that the employers 
would ask employees to prolongs their staying at work. 
The high frequency may be caused by the fact that DK 
have coded some respondents as code 5, who should in 
fact have been coded 4? These are the respondents who 
have not reduced their working hours in a move to full 
retirement, and who do not plan to reduce their 
working hours have been coded 5. The difference 
between code 4 and code 5 is unclear to DK. 
Furthermore the Danish question on reduction of 
working hours in a move to full retirement to those 
respondents who are unemployed may not have been 
completely clear.  
Part-time work/reduced working hours in a move to 
full retirement is not usual in Estonia and lot of 
respondents say that they can not do such plans as it is 
not possible anyway (coded as 5)  
For people not employed when being asked the ahm, 
all answers 'no' were assigned to option '5', with no 
distinction of the situation (options '3' and '4' were not 
proposed). 
People are not interested in reducing working hours 
before retirement. On the one hand they do not want 
and cannot afford to reduce their income; on the other 
hand if they earn less their pension will be lower for 
the amount of the old-age pension depends on the 
recognised length of service and on the average 
monthly earning taken into account.  
According to the provisions of the Lithuanian law on 
Pensions, a person willing to earn a higher retirement 
allowance, should not reduce the number of working 
hours, especially this applies to persons close to the 
retirement age, because if they do so, they would 
receive a lower salary and his retirement allowances 
will be calculated on the basis of this lowered salary 
which in it's turn results in lower pension. Because of 
this reason the majority of the respondents chose this 
answer to this variable. 
Reducing of working hours before moving to full 
retirement in Latvia is used only in few cases. Mostly 
situation is opposite - people are choosing to work 
more hours to provide sufficient household income 
and/or to increase retirement pension. 
About half of these persons stated that they did not 
reduce hours before retirement. And about half 
indicated not have stop working because of retirement 
but for other reasons. So for these persons the question 
was not relevant and therefore not asked. 
A relatively large number of this category is due to the 
specific character of the Polish labour market - mainly 
a low level of retirement pensions and uncertain 

14

DK 

5 

1,2 

Comparatively 
high 
frequencies 

EE 

5 

1,2 

FR 

5 

3,5 

HU 

5 

1,2 

LT 

5 

1,2 

LV 

5 

All 

NL 

5 

3,5 

PL 

5 

1,2 

Comparatively 
high 
frequencies 

Comparatively 
high 
frequencies 

Comparatively 
high 
frequencies 

Comparatively 
high 
frequencies 

Comparatively 
high 
frequencies 

Comparatively 
high 
frequencies 

Comparatively 
high 
frequencies 

 
PT 

5 

1,2 

Comparatively 
high 
frequencies 

tendency of their shaping in the future.  
In fact, from those individuals, 52.6% were employed 
and 30% were not employed. PT is not sure about the 
reasons why so many persons have no plans to reduce 
working hours; maybe it is not a common situation in 
the country, or in the actual conditions of the 
Portuguese labour market. 

The Task Force pointed out that some of the results are maybe driven by the age of the respondent and the sector 
of economic activity. In addition different patterns were expected for self-employed persons. Due to the reason 
that the retirement systems  face some adjustments (reforms) and persons have to work longer, one can expect 
that younger persons and self employed persons tend to answer by choosing response item 5 (No, and does not 
know about plans for the next 5 years…). The analysis (not presented here) shows for some countries that not 
employed younger persons (50-59) used response item 5 significantly more frequent. The question is maybe less 
relevant  for  younger  persons.  For  self  employed  persons  the  descriptive  analysis  didn't  show  any  significant 
differences  to  employees.  With  respect  to  the  influence  of  the  industry  on  the  response  behaviour  the  first 
descriptive analysis didn’t' provided evidence for any bias. 

PLAGESTP (Col.241/242) "planned age for stopping all work for pay or profit" 

For the implementation several countries (BG, CY, DK, ES, FI, GR and SK) chose to ask for the information to 
employed persons and not employed persons separately. The other countries (AT, BE, CZ, EE, HU, IT, LT, LV, 
PL, PT and UK) adopted a different approach asking together both groups. 

Some countries pointed out that the variable is not appropriate for older persons as well as persons not working 
but  wanted  to  work.  Furthermore,  some  countries  stressed  that  changes  in  legal  frameworks  of  social  security 
systems  affect  (and  change)  the  plans  of  respondents  (same  issue  as  for  the  variable  REDUCHRS).  For  the 
repetition  of  the  module  the  variable  should  exclude  persons  who  are  already  in  retirement.  But  this  needs  a 
clarification of the concept of retirement by either introducing a variable or more precise instruction within the 
Explanatory notes.  

For the coding it could be better to have only age classes instead of the precise year and to be more precise on 
the wording for the code 96. It should be clear whether "as long as possible" means "legally" or "physically". 

The figures below show the main distribution within the countries for the groups of employed (Figure 1) and not 
employed persons (Figure 2). The first graphical analysis shows only minor atypical patterns.  

Distribution PLAGESTP for employed persons (WSTATOR=1,2) 

100%

90%

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

BE  BG  CZ  DK  DE  EE 

IE  EL  ES  FR 

IT  CY  LV  LT  LU  HU  MT  NL  AT  PL  PT  RO SI  SK  FI  SE  UK  NO 

Has already stopped all work for pay or profit
No exact planned age and does not know at all when it will be
No exact planned age, but it will be at 65 years old or after or plans to work as long as possible
No exact planned age, but it will be between 60 and 64 years old
No exact planned age, but it will be before 60 years old
65+
60_64
50_59

15

 
 
 
 
Distribution PLAGESTP for not employed persons (WSTATOR=3,5) 

100%

90%

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

BE  BG  CZ  DK  DE  EE 

IE  EL  ES  FR 

IT  CY  LV  LT  LU  HU  MT  NL  AT  PL  PT  RO SI  SK  FI  SE  UK  NO 

Has already stopped all work for pay or profit
No exact planned age and does not know at all when it will be
No exact planned age, but it will be at 65 years old or after or plans to work as long as possible
No exact planned age, but it will be between 60 and 64 years old
No exact planned age, but it will be before 60 years old
65+
60_64
50_59

Country 

Item 

LV 

MT  

98 

98 

Employment 
status 
1,2 

1,2 

Problem 

Reason 

Item doesn't 
make sense  
Item doesn't 
make sense  

No explanation 

No explanation 

For  the  evaluation  the  Task Force  members  suggested  to analyze  whether  age,  sex  and  the  professional  status 
affected the results. The descriptive analysis (not presented here) showed that younger employed persons do not 
tend  to  have  more  precise  plans  and  self  employed  persons  tend  to  work  longer  without  precise  plans.  The 
distribution of the variables is reported in the graphs below.  

16

 
 
 
 
Men

Women

LU

HU

MT

NL

AT

PL

PT

RO

SI

SK

FI

SE

UK

NO

LU

HU

MT

NL

AT

PL

PT

RO

SI

SK

FI

SE

UK

NO

50

60

70

80

90
PLAGESTP

50

60

70

80

90

Graphs by sex

Men

Women

BE

BG

CZ

DK

DE

EE

IE

GR

ES

FR

IT

CY

LV

LT

BE

BG

CZ

DK

DE

EE

IE

GR

ES

FR

IT

CY

LV

LT

50

60

70

80

90
PLAGESTP

50

60

70

80

90

Graphs by sex

Note: Figures above show horizontal box plots. The graphs show the median, the upper 25 percentile, lower 25 
percentile, upper and lower adjacent values as well as outside values. Distribution is calculated for all persons 
which stated a 2-digit planned exit age (PLAGESTP<94).  

17

 
 
 
 
STATAFT (Col.243) "Main labour status just after leaving last job or business" 

The  implementation  of  the  variable  faced  no  major  problems.  Most  countries  asked  the  question  as  it  was 
proposed in the specification of the module. Only some countries (AT, BG, GR, IE, IT and PL) included due to 
the national conditions one or more extra options or very slight variations. With respect to the problems only a 
minor comment was given: the similarity of the question of the core LFS “Main reason for leaving last job" and 
the confusion that it may imply for interviewees.  

The figure and table below shows the main distribution within the countries and the reasons for atypical patterns. 

Distribution STATAFT 

100%

90%

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

BE  BG  CZ  DK  DE  EE 

IE  EL  ES  FR 

IT  CY  LV  LT  LU  HU  MT  NL  AT  PL  PT  RO SI  SK  FI  SE  UK  NO 

Unemployed

In retirement or early retirement

Long term sick or disabled Other

Country 

Item 

DE 

ES 

1 

1 

Employment 
status 
all 

all 

FI 

1 

all 

FR 

PT 

BG 

1 

1 

2 

all 

all 

all 

Problem 

Reason 

Comparatively 
high 
frequencies 
Comparatively 
high 
frequencies 

Comparatively 
high 
frequencies 

Comparatively 
high 
frequencies 
Comparatively 
high 
frequencies 
Comparatively 
high 
frequencies 

Unemployed older than 50 (55) often do not succeed 
in becoming integrated into the labour market again. 

One possible explanation would be that the 
respondents who left their last job not voluntarily 
describe as themselves as unemployed, even if they 
didn't fulfil the conditions of unemployment, 
according to the LFS definitions. 
In the nineties, there was a deep recession in Finland. 
The unemployment rate was at it's highest at 16.6 in 
1994 and it was over 10 all the years 1992-1999 and 
still quite high in 2000's. So, truly, unemployment was 
main labour status just after leaving last job or 
business for so many non-employed 50 to 69 years old 
in Finland. 
May be due to the declarative aspect of the question. 

According to the results of the national LFS, the 
individuals above 50 years old classified as 
unemployed have high frequencies.  
From 3648 persons (C243=2) 3248 had reached 
compulsory retirement age (in 2006 63 years of age for 
men and 58.5 years of age for women, this age is 
lower for some professions) and receive individual 
retirement pension. 

18

 
 
 
NO 

BE 

3 

4 

all 

all 

Comparatively 
high 
frequencies 
Comparatively 
high 
frequencies 

That is the case for Norway. 

The reason is that BE added an important category 
'bridging pension' and since this category was not 
foreseen by Eurostat, BE have added the results of this 
category to the results of 'other'. The frequency for our 
item 2 'bridging pension' is 25.5%. The real frequency 
for 'other' (item 5 in national questionnaire) is 9.3%. 

The Task Force discussed a possible correlation between the age of the respondent and their answers. The more 
detailed  analysis  (not  presented  here)  showed  that  in  some  countries  younger  persons  (aged  50-54)  are  more 
frequent  unemployed  and  older  persons  (aged  60-69)  are  more  frequent  in  retirement  or  early  retirement.  The 
possible analysis of this variable is quite limited. The variable could be cross tabulated with structural variables 
like sex, age and education. Detailed information on the labour market participation (e.g. sector of activity and 
occupation)  is  restricted  on  persons  which  started  their  retirement  less  than  8  ago.  For  the  repetition  of  the 
module this should be taking into account.  

REASRET (Col.244) "main reason for retirement or early retirement" 

The implementation seems to be without major problems because respondents could easily be filtered from the 
previous question. As for STATAFT, most countries asked the question as proposed in the specification of the 
module. Only some countries (AT, BG, CZ, ES, FR, GR, HU, IT, PL and SL) included one or more extra options 
or very slight variations in order.  

With respect to the problems some countries pointed out that the response items were too detailed and a few of 
them  not  very  appropriate.  For  example,  some  countries  faced  difficulties  to  distinguish  between  item  7 
"Preference  to  stop  working  other  than  previous  codes"  and  item  8  "Other".  As  for  item  2,  there  were 
misunderstandings between compulsory and legal age of retirement (some counties used in the questionnaire the 
standard retirement age instead of the compulsory retirement age). 

The figure and table below shows the main distribution within the countries and the reasons for atypical patterns. 

Distribution REASRET 

100%

90%

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

BE  BG  CZ  DK  DE  EE 

IE  EL  ES  FR 

IT  CY  LV  LT  LU  HU  MT  NL  AT  PL  PT  RO SI  SK  FI  SE  UK  NO 

Job lost
Own health or disability
Problems related to job
Preference to stop working other than previous codes Other

Had reached compulsory retirement age
Care responsibilities
Favourable financial arrangements to leave

19

 
 
 
 
Country 

Item 

FR 

6 

Employment 
status 
all 

NL 

6 

all 

CZ 

7 

all 

SK 

7 

all 

SI 

8 

all 

Problem 

Reason 

Comparatively 
high 
frequencies 

Comparatively 
high 
frequencies 

Comparatively 
high 
frequencies 

Comparatively 
high 
frequencies 

Comparatively 
high 
frequencies 

In order to reduce unemployment of older persons, 
French authorities developed public pre-retirement 
programs in the 1970's. Moreover, pre-retirement 
schemes were also made available within the firms 
(private pre-retirement schemes). The access to pre-
retirement schemes was limited in the 1990's and after 
the 2003 pension reform.  
This is just the result of an answer to the direct 
question on the most important reason to retire. There 
is no reason to doubt these results. It is probably an 
adequate reflection of the reality. 
The code 2 was seen as risky to be misunderstood as 
there are very few professions where the maximum 
age is defined and the employer usually offers another 
job (that is without age limit) to such worker. Vice-
versa the most frequent reasons for leaving is 
attainment of retirement age when the leaving is 
possible. Therefore there is an extra code 1 
“Attainment of retirement age” in national 
questionnaire. For this reason they were only low 
frequencies in code 2, but they were high frequencies 
in code 7 (this code includes "Attainment of retirement 
age") 
According the explanatory notes, the item 7 also 
included persons who reached the minimum or 
standard retirement age, so it is a main reason why the 
item 7 was very frequent answer.  
High frequencies are due to persons who have fulfilled 
the requirements for the retirement and they were 
classified among 'the other' since we didn't know 
where to put these persons.  

The  more  detailed  analysis  (not  presented  here)  of  this  variable  showed  a  correlation  to  the  age  of  the 
respondent. In  some  countries  younger persons  (aged 50-54)  answered more  frequent that  "voluntary  reasons" 
are the main reason for retirement or early retirement. Meanwhile "job related problems" seem not to be the main 
reason for retirement or early retirement.  

FLEXWORK (Col.245) "flexible working time arrangements)" 

OPPSKILL (Col.246) "opportunities to update skills"  

HLTHSAF (Col.247) "health and/or safety at workplace" 

These  variables  were  discussed  together  because  of  their  similarity.  For  the  implementation  of  these  variables 
some countries asked only one question (AT, BG, EE, FI and HU). Some countries (BG, CY, DK, EE, ES, FI, 
FR, GR, NO, RO, SE, SI and SK) distinguished all variables of the questionnaire for employed persons and not 
employed persons.  

Similar problems were reported for the three variables providing information on a possible/actual longer stay at 
work. Firstly, the variables are not relevant for unemployed persons, self employed persons and people in early 
retirement  due  to  redundancy.  The  most  interesting  group  are  those  who  would  like  to  stop  earlier  than  the 
standard retirement age. Secondly, the kind of labour market flexibility addressed by variable FLEXWORK does 
not  exist  in  all  countries,  especially  not  in  Eastern  Member  States.  Thirdly,  the  three  variables  are  maybe  too 
hypothetical.  For  the  repetition  of  the  module,  one  option  could  be  to  ask  only  one  question  about  the  "main 
factors" which contribute to a longer stay at work. 

The figures below show the main distribution within the countries for the groups of employed and not employed 
persons. In addition, tables providing the information about the reasons for atypical patterns.  

20

 
 
 
 
Distribution FLEXWORK for employed persons (WSTATOR=1,2) 

100%

90%

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

BE  BG  CZ  DK  DE  EE 

IE  EL  ES  FR 

IT  CY  LV  LT  LU  HU  MT  NL  AT  PL  PT  RO SI  SK  FI  SE  UK  NO 

Distribution FLEXWORK for not employed persons (WSTATOR=3,5) 

Yes No

100%

90%

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

BE  BG  CZ  DK  DE  EE 

IE  EL  ES  FR 

IT  CY  LV  LT  LU  HU  MT  NL  AT  PL  PT  RO SI  SK  FI  SE  UK  NO 

Country 

Item 

BG 

2 

Employment 
status 
1,2 

Yes No

Problem 

Reason 

Comparatively 
low frequencies 

LT 

2 

1,2 

Comparatively 
low frequencies 

These variables express the subjective assessment of 
interviewees about working factors that could 
contribute to them staying longer at work and under 
the conditions in BG these factors are more substantial 
than others. 
As far as the questions Col.245, Col.246 and Col.247 
are concerned in which a majority of respondents 
answered that neither opportunities to update skills nor 

21

 
 
 
 
LV 

2 

1,2 

Comparatively 
low frequencies 

better health safe conditions would not be a stimulus 
encouraging to continue working, it is because they 
had never dealt with that type of situation in reality. In 
majority cases the respondents are complaining about 
their age as being a disadvantage because an employee 
would always prefer a younger worker instead of 
creating better working conditions for a person of the 
retirement age. 
Because in Latvia working hours were generally not 
reduced, more flexible working time arrangements 
contribute persons stay longer at work after retirement 
age.  

Distribution OPPSKILL for employed persons (WSTATOR=1,2) 

100%

90%

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

BE  BG  CZ  DK  DE  EE 

IE  EL  ES  FR 

IT  CY  LV  LT  LU  HU  MT  NL  AT  PL  PT  RO SI  SK  FI  SE  UK  NO 

Distribution OPPSKILL for not employed persons (WSTATOR=3,5) 

Yes No

100%

90%

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

BE  BG  CZ  DK  DE  EE 

IE  EL  ES  FR 

IT  CY  LV  LT  LU  HU  MT  NL  AT  PL  PT  RO SI  SK  FI  SE  UK  NO 

Yes No

22

 
 
 
 
Country 

Item 

LT 

LV 

2 

2 

Employment 
status 
1,2 

1,2 

Problem 

Reason 

Comparatively 
low frequencies 
Comparatively 
low frequencies 

MT 

2 

1,2 

Comparatively 
low frequencies 

Same as for FLEXWORK. 

If person after retirement age wants to stay in labour 
market as long as it is possible (because of small 
pensions in Latvia) more opportunities to update skills 
is important to compete with younger persons in 
labour market. 
No specific explanation. 

Distribution HLTHSAF for employed persons (WSTATOR=1,2) 

100%

90%

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

BE  BG  CZ  DK  DE  EE 

IE  EL  ES  FR 

IT  CY  LV  LT  LU  HU  MT  NL  AT  PL  PT  RO SI  SK  FI  SE  UK  NO 

Distribution HLTHSAF for not employed persons (WSTATOR=3,5) 

Yes No

100%

90%

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

BE  BG  CZ  DK  DE  EE 

IE  EL  ES  FR 

IT  CY  LV  LT  LU  HU  MT  NL  AT  PL  PT  RO SI  SK  FI  SE  UK  NO 

Yes No

23

 
 
 
 
 
Country 

Item 

BG 

EE 

2 

2 

Employment 
status 
1,2 

1,2 and 3,5 

Problem 

Reason 

Comparatively 
low frequencies 
Comparatively 
low frequencies 

LT 

LV 

2 

2 

1,2 

1,2 

Comparatively 
low frequencies 
Comparatively 
low frequencies 

Same as for FLEXWORK. 

No clear explanation for this, just some suspicions. In 
2006 questionnaire EE had health module (for national 
purposes) just before ad hoc module. Perhaps 
respondents with health problems had their health 
"more in mind" then answering to Col.247 compared 
to other countries there no health questions were asked 
before. Also, as in Estonia the share of persons with 
longstanding health problems is quite high compared 
to other countries (according to the results of ad hoc 
module 2002), we have potentially more people who 
may answer 'yes' to Col.247. 
Same as for FLEXWORK. 

If person wants to work as long as possible it's 
important to have good health. Different health 
protection programs and/or safety at workplace 
provide better health conditions that give possibilities 
to stay longer in labour market. 

The  more  detailed  analysis  (not  presented  here)  of  this  variable  by  the  economic  activity  (NACE1D)  and  the 
occupation (ISCO1D) of the respondent didn't show statistically significant deviations for the analysed groups.  

AGEPENS (Col.248/249) "Age at which person started to receive an individual retirement pension" 

The  majority  of  countries  (BE,  BG,  CY,  CZ,  DK,  ES,  FR,  LT,  LV,  PL,  SK  and  UK)  addressed  the  question 
focusing  the  attention  on  the  individual  retirement  pensions.  But  among  these  countries,  however,  some 
specifications  have  to  be  made:  BG  and  SK  included  social  pensions;  CZ  excluded  non  regular  retirement 
pensions;  DK  and  UK  included  voluntary  pensions.  Some  other  countries  (AT,  EE  and  IT)  extended  the 
possibilities of answer to respondents presenting them a number of items to take also into account non individual 
and  other  pensions  (i.e.  widow/survivor,  social,  disability,  voluntary,  etc.)  in  order  to  identify  individual 
retirement  pensions.  These  different  approaches  show  that  there  is  maybe  not  a  clear  definition  of  the  term 
"retirement pension".  

For the repetition of the module the focus should be on "retirement" pensions due to a previous working activity. 
The  explanatory  notes  should  provide  more  details  about  the  issue  which  types  of  retirement  pension  are 
relevant.  Moreover  instead  of  asking  the  "Age  at  which  person  started  to  receive  an  individual  retirement 
pension" it could be easier to ask "Year and month at which…".  

The  figures  and  tables  below  show  the  main  distribution  within  the  countries  and  the  reasons  for  atypical 
patterns. 

24

 
 
 
 
Distribution AGEPENS for employed persons (WSTATOR=1,2) 

100%

90%

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

BE  BG  CZ  DK  DE  EE 

IE  EL  ES  FR 

IT  CY  LV  LT  LU  HU  MT  NL  AT  PL  PT  RO SI  SK  FI  SE  UK  NO 

00_54
60_64
Does not receive an individual retirement pension even though is entitled to

55_59
65+
Is not/not yet entitled to an individual retirement pension

Distribution AGEPENS for not employed persons (WSTATOR=3,5) 

100%

90%

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

BE  BG  CZ  DK  DE  EE 

IE  EL  ES  FR 

IT  CY  LV  LT  LU  HU  MT  NL  AT  PL  PT  RO SI  SK  FI  SE  UK  NO 

00_54
60_64
Does not receive an individual retirement pension even though is entitled to

55_59
65+
Is not/not yet entitled to an individual retirement pension

Country 

Item 

DE 

97 

Employment 
status 
1.2 

DK 

97 

1.2 

SE 

97 

1,2 and 3,5 

Problem 

Reason 

Comparatively 
high 
frequencies 
Comparatively 
high 
frequencies 
Comparatively 
high 
frequencies 

About 90% of employed persons who answered code 
97 are younger than 60. These people usually are not 
retired. 
Individual retirement pensions are not very widespread 
in Denmark. 

No explanation. 

25

 
 
 
 
For those persons who answered with a detailed age category the graphs below showing the distribution by sex.  

Men

Women

BE

BG

CZ

DK

DE

EE

IE

GR

ES

FR

IT

CY

LV

LT

BE

BG

CZ

DK

DE

EE

IE

GR

ES

FR

IT

CY

LV

LT

40

50

60

70
AGEPENS

40

50

60

70

Graphs by sex

Men

Women

LU

HU

MT

NL

AT

PL

PT

RO

SI

SK

FI

SE

UK

NO

LU

HU

MT

NL

AT

PL

PT

RO

SI

SK

FI

SE

UK

NO

40

50

60

70
AGEPENS

40

50

60

70

Graphs by sex

Note: Figures above show horizontal box plots. The graphs show the median, the upper 25 percentile, lower 25 
percentile, upper and lower adjacent values as well as outside values. Distribution is calculated for all persons 
which stated a age where they started to receive a individual retirement (AGEPENS<97).  

OTHBENF (Col.250) "Person receives an individual pension or individual benefits …" 

With respect to the implementation of this variable most of the countries reported problems with the definitions 
provided in the explanatory notes for individual pension or individual benefits. The cross country comparability 
could be influenced by misunderstandings of the explanatory notes. The figure and table below show the main 
distribution within the countries and the reasons for atypical patterns. 

26

 
 
 
 
Distribution OTHBENF for not employed persons (WSTATOR=3,5) 

100%

90%

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

BE  BG  CZ  DK  DE  EE 

IE  EL  ES  FR 

IT  CY  LV  LT  LU  HU  MT  NL  AT  PL  PT  RO SI  SK  FI  SE  UK  NO 

Yes, a disability pension or a sick pension
Yes, another individual benefit not elsewhere classified
No

Yes, an early retirement scheme allowance
Yes, combination of codes 1, 2 or 3

Problem 

Reason 

Country 

Item 

BG 

CY 

EE 

HU 

RO 

SK 

DK 

EE 

2 

2 

2 

2 

2 

2 

3 

3 

Employment 
status 
all 

all 

all 

all 

all 

all 

all 

all 

No values for 
this item 
No values for 
this item 
No values for 
these item 

No values for 
this item 
No values for 
this item 
No values for 
this item 
No values for 
this item 

No values for 
these item 

UK 

all 

1 and 
2 

No values for 
these item 

No early retirement scheme allowance is paid. 

No such allowance exists. 

Code 2 is missing in the database because "Early 
retirement scheme allowance" does not exist in 
Estonia. 
Not typical in Hungary, this category was omitted. 

Early retirement scheme allowance does not exist in 
Romania. 
An early retirement scheme allowance described in the 
explanatory notes does not exist in Slovakia. 
Code 3 was not included as an option in the Danish 
questionnaire, as the list of codes was considered 
conclusive. 
Code 3 is missing in the database because even in 
principle "National pension" can be classified here 
(answer 8 to question M03 in Estonian LFS ad hoc 
module questionnaire), there was no responses to this 
category. It was expected as actual number of persons 
aged 50-69 entitled to national pension is insignificant. 
These values cannot be coded for the UK. 

FININCTV (Col.251) "Main financial incentive to stay at work" 

Whereas some countries only used one question to construct the variable, others divided it into two questions. 
First, whether financial incentives influence the decision to stay longer at work. Second, in case answer to the 
latter question was yes, the type of financial incentive involved (current revenue versus future pension). Some 
countries found the filter of this question too restrictive which led to missing values. Due to the reason that some 
countries  (FR  and  FI)  didn't  used  the  filter  in  the  correct  way  they  faced  some  problems.  In  particular,  older 
persons receiving a retirement pension while working were often not asked about their main financial incentive 
to stay at work. For the repetition of the module, a wider filter would be better.  

The figure and table below show the main distribution within the countries and the reasons for atypical patterns. 

27

 
 
 
Distribution FININCTV for not employed persons (WSTATOR=3,5) 

100%

90%

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

BE  BG  CZ  DK  DE  EE 

IE  EL  ES  FR 

IT  CY  LV  LT  LU  HU  MT  NL  AT  PL  PT  RO SI  SK  FI  SE  UK  NO 

To increase retirement pension entitlements

To provide sufficient household income No financial incentive

Country 

Item 

EL 

1 

Employment 
status 
all 

DE 

DK 

IT 

LU 

3 

3 

3 

3 

all 

all 

all 

all 

Problem 

Reason 

Comparatively 
high 
frequencies 

Comparatively 
high 
frequencies 
No values for 
this item 

Comparatively 
high 
frequencies 
Comparatively 
high 
frequencies 

In Greece, pension entitlements depend on the level of 
salary during the last 5 years before retirement. So 
there is a strong motive for people to stay more years 
in the job (though they have the right to retire) in order 
to have higher pension (since the salary of a person 
who works, for example, 30 years, is usually much 
higher than the salary of a person working 25 years). 
Maybe pensions nowadays are still high enough and 
free-time is more important than financial incentives.  

DK have no suggestion to solve this problem. They 
realise that the data collection has been flawed in this 
regard. 
Financial incentives represent a very limited tool in 
Italy. The employees of the private sector only can 
take advantage from this cash benefit. 
Good social security system, therefore if people stay 
longer at work there is mostly no financial incentive. 

The  Task  Force  pointed  out  that  the  responses  are  maybe  influenced  by  the  age  of  the  respondent.  The  more 
detailed analysis provided hints that the incentive for older persons (65+) to stay at work is providing sufficient 
household income.  

YEARSPNT (Col.252/253) "Number of years spent working for pay or profit" 

Due to different treatment of breaks from works (e.g. unemployment, sickness, maternity leave, parental leave 
…) this variable could be problematic with respect to cross country comparability. Some countries pointed out 
that  respondents  were  not  able  to  calculate  the  correct  number  of  years  (especially  older  persons).  In  addition 
some  persons  did  not  know  what  to  state  in  case  of  breaks  in  their  working  life  (e.g.  parental  leave).  The 
explanatory notes should provide more precise guidelines.  

The  figures  and  table  below  shows  the  main  distribution  within  the  countries  and  the  reasons  for  atypical 
patterns.  

28

 
 
 
 
 
Distribution YEARSPNT for employed persons (WSTATOR=1,2) 

100%

90%

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

BE  BG  CZ  DK  DE  EE 

IE  EL  ES  FR 

IT  CY  LV  LT  LU  HU  MT  NL  AT  PL  PT  RO SI  SK  FI  SE  UK  NO 

Distribution YEARSPNT for not employed persons (WSTATOR=3,5) 

00_24

25_29

30_34

35_39

40_69

100%

90%

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

BE  BG  CZ  DK  DE  EE 

IE  EL  ES  FR 

IT  CY  LV  LT  LU  HU  MT  NL  AT  PL  PT  RO SI  SK  FI  SE  UK  NO 

Country 

Item 

CY 

00-24 
years 

Employment 
status 
3.5 

ES 

00-24 
years 

3.5 

00_24

25_29

30_34

35_39

40_69

Problem 

Reason 

Comparatively 
high 
frequencies 

Comparatively 
high 
frequencies 

The frequencies show that the respondents in this group 
are only women. This can be explained by the low 
participation of women in the labour market in Cyprus 
especially before 1980 and in addition to the exit of a 
percentage of women from the labour market for 
bringing up their children. 
It is due to the late inclusion of women in the labour 
market. The participation of women in the Spanish 
labour market has been more active since the sixties. 

29

 
 
 
In addition, the distribution of this variable provides a more detailed intuition.  

For persons with WSTATOR=1,2: 

Men

Women

BE

BG

CZ

DK

DE

EE

IE

GR

ES

FR

IT

CY

LV

LT

BE

BG

CZ

DK

DE

EE

IE

GR

ES

FR

IT

CY

LV

LT

0

20

40

60

0

20

40

60

Graphs by sex

YEARSPNT

Men

Women

LU

HU

MT

NL

AT

PL

PT

RO

SI

SK

FI

SE

UK

NO

LU

HU

MT

NL

AT

PL

PT

RO

SI

SK

FI

SE

UK

NO

0

20

40

60
YEARSPNT

0

20

40

60

Graphs by sex

30

 
  
For persons with WSTATOR=3,5: 

Men

Women

LU

HU

MT

NL

AT

PL

PT

RO

SI

SK

FI

SE

UK

NO

LU

HU

MT

NL

AT

PL

PT

RO

SI

SK

FI

SE

UK

NO

0

20

40

60

0

20

40

60

Graphs by sex

YEARSPNT

Men

Women

BE

BG

CZ

DK

DE

EE

IE

GR

ES

FR

IT

CY

LV

LT

BE

BG

CZ

DK

DE

EE

IE

GR

ES

FR

IT

CY

LV

LT

0

20

40

60
YEARSPNT

0

20

40

60

Graphs by sex

Note: Figures above show horizontal box plots. The graphs show the median, the upper 25 percentile, lower 25 
percentile, upper and lower adjacent values as well as outside values. Distribution is calculated for all persons 
which stated a number of years spent working (YEARSPNT<99).  

31

 
 
7 

Dissemination in Eurostat Database 

The main variables which have to be crossed with the variables from the ad hoc module are 

• 

• 

• 

sex (male and female) 

age (50-54, 55-59, 60-64 and 65-69)  

employment status (employed (WSTATOR=1,2) and not employed (WSTATOR=3,5)) 

REDUCHRS  (Person  reduced  working  hours):  Combining  codes  1with  2(yes)  as  well  as  4  (no  and  no  plans) 
with  5(no  and  do  not  know  for  the  next  5  years)  in  single  codes.  For  employed  persons  crossing  by  FTPT, 
NACE1D,  STAPRO  and  ISCO1D.  For  not  employed  persons  crossing  by  NACEPR1D,  STAPROPR  and 
ISCOPR1D.  

PLAGESTP:  Recode  2-digit  codes  to  the  respective  90-codes  (94,  95,  96).  For  employed  persons  crossing  by 
FTPT, NACE1D, STAPRO and ISCO1D. For not employed persons crossing by NACEPR1D, STAPROPR and 
ISCOPR1D. 

STATAFT: Crossing with AGEPENS (mean and median). 

REASRET (reason for retirement): Combining job related reasons (1, job lost; 5 problems related to job and 8 
other; legal/preference to stop codes (2, reached compulsory retirement age and 7, preference to stop other than 
previous) and personal reasons (3, own health; 4, care responsibilities and 6, favourable financial arrangements) 
in single codes. Crossing with STATAFT, YEARSPNT and AGEPENS. 

FLEXWORK,  OPPSKILL  and HLTHSAF:  For  employed  persons  crossing by  NACE1D,  STAPRO,  ISCO1D, 
YEARSPNT  and  AGEPENS.  For  not  employed  persons  crossing  by  NACEPR1D,  STAPROPR,  ISCOPR1D, 
STATAFT, YEARSPNT and AGEPENS. 

OTHBENF: Crossing by YEARSPNT and AGEPENS.  

FININCTV: Crossing by NACE1D, STAPRO, ISCO1D, YEARSPNT and AGEPENS. 

AGEPENS and YEARSPNT: Mean and Median. Crossing by NACE1D and ISCO1D.  

32

 
 
Annex 1: National conditions on retirement in 2006 

Country 
BE 

BG  

Standard pension 
Men: 65 years 
Women: 64 years 
First Pillar: 
Men: 63 years of age and 100 
points. 
Women: 59 years of age and 93 
points. 
Number of points = age + years 
of insurance. 
Specific provisions exist for 
certain professions. 
Second Pillar: 
Entitlement arises when the 
insured person acquires right to a 
standard old-age pension under 
the First Pillar.  
For details see MISSOC. 

CZ  

DK  

DE  

EE  

Men: 61 years and 8 months. 
Women: depends upon the 
number of children raised: 
no children  60 years, 
1 child 59 years, 
2 children 58 years, 
3 or 4 children 57 years, 
5 or more children 56 years. 
The retirement age shall be 
gradually increased by 2 months 
for men and 4 months for 
women each year until it reaches 
63 years for men and women 
without children and 59 - 62 
years for women with children." 
Social Pension: 65 (67 for those 
who had reached the age of 60 
on 1.7.1999). 
Supplementary pension: 
67. However, persons may 
demand the pension before the 
age of 67, but not before the age 
of 65. The pension is 
proportionally reduced from the 
age 67 down to 65 years. 
65 years (standard retirement 
age). 
Men: 63 years 
Women: 60 years 

Early pension 
Age 60 (women and men) after 35 
years of professional activity. 
There exist two separate schemes 
for early retirement. The one is the 
so called Teachers pension fund, a 
public statutory PAYG scheme. 
The second one is a private scheme 
for supplementary compulsory 
pension insurance on a capital base 
under the second pillar for early 
retirement of persons working 
under hard labour conditions, a 
Professional pension fund. 
Apart from these two separate 
schemes there is a regime for early 
retirement in the frame of the 
general statutory scheme with 
universal coverage. Possible for 
persons who have worked 10 years 
under the first category of labour 
and have reached 47 years of age 
for women and 52 years of age for 
men or 15 years under the second 
category of labour and 52 years of 
age for women and 57 years of age 
for men. This regime is in force 
until 2009. 
Available up to three years prior to 
the normal retirement age, the 
actual date of retirement is left to 
the claimant's discretion. The 
claimant must have an insurance 
record of at least 25 years. 

Deferred pension 
No deferred pension. 

Insured persons can work 
beyond entitlement to a 
pension and there is no 
maximum age applied. 

Minimum of 90 days after 
normal retirement age, no 
maximum limit. 

Social Pension: No retirement 
possible before the statutory 
pensionable age of 65 years. 

Social Pension: 
Deferment up to 120 
months possible at any 
time after the pensionable 
age. 
Supplementary pension: 
Deferment possible until 
reaching the age of 75. 

Early retirement is possible. 
For details see MISSOC. 
Early Retirement Pension: 
Available up to 3 years before the 
legal retirement age. 
For details see MISSOC. 

Unlimited deferment 
possible. 
Unlimited deferment 
possible. 

33

 
IE  

GR  

State Pension (Transition): 65 
years. 
State Pension (Contributory): 66 
years. 
Persons insured before 1.1.1993: 
Men: 65 years Women: 60 years 
Persons insured since 1.1.1993: 
Men: 65 years 
Women: 65 years 

ES  

65 years. 

FR  

General scheme for employees: 
60 years. 
Complementary schemes for 
employees: 65 years of age, with 
possibility to obtain the pension 
at the age of 60 if the basic 
pension was accorded at a full 
rate. 

No early pension. 

No deferred pension. 

Persons insured before 1.1.1993: 
Full pension: Without age 
condition if 37 insurance years or 
11,100 days,  
For details see MISSOC 
Reduced pension: 
For details see MISSOC 

Persons insured since 1.1.1993: 
Full pension: Without age 
condition if 37 insurance years or 
11,100 days, 
Reduced pension:  
For details see MISSOC 
60 years of age for certain persons 
who were insured according to the 
system abolished on 1 January 
1967. 
61 years of age for employees in 
certain cases. 
The age of 65 can be reduced for 
certain groups whose professional 
activity is arduous, toxic, 
dangerous or unhealthy." 
General scheme for employees: 
Since the age of 56 for the insured 
that started their professional 
activity at the age of 14 and under 
a triple condition (duration of 
insurance, duration of contribution 
and retirement age). Since the age 
of 55 for the insured with severe 
disability who fulfils the minimum 
periods of insurance and 
contribution. 
Complementary schemes for 
employees: Since the age of 55 
with an anticipation coefficient or 
without coefficient if the insured 
obtained the basic pension at a full 
rate. 

Deferment possible until 
the age of 67 years. 

As a general rule, 
unlimited deferment 
possible. 

General scheme for 
employees: 
After 60 years, increase 
of the pension amount 
(over-evaluation) if the 
insured fulfils the 
insurance condition for a 
full rate pension. 
After 65 years, increase 
of the insurance duration 
if the insured does not 
fulfil (for any basic 
scheme) the requested 
duration of insurance 
depending on the year of 
birth. 
Complementary schemes 
for employees: No 
specific measure because 
the number of pension 
points is related to the 
duration of 
contributions." 

34

 
 
 
IT  

Persons insured before 1.1.1996: 
Men: 65 years. 
Women: 60 years. 
Persons with a disability of at 
least 80% and blind people: 60 
years for men, 55 years for 
women. 
Persons insured since 1.1.1996: 
Flexible retirement age between 
57 and 65 years. 

CY 

LV  

65 years for men and women;  
63 years for miners. 

Men: 62 years. 
Women: 61,5 years by 1 July 
2007 (gradually increasing by 6 
months every year until it 
reaches 62 years)." 

LT  

Men: 62.5 years 
Women: 60 years 

LU  

65 years. 

1st and 2nd pillar: 62 years of 
age. 

HU  

MT  

Early retirement pension: at the age 
of 57 with 35 years of 
contributions or after 37 years of 
contributions regardless of age. 
Pensions awarded to employees of 
companies in economic difficulties: 
Early retirement is possible up to 5 
years before normal retiring age. 
Special conditions for employees 
with an early start of working life 
(minimum 52 contribution weeks 
in the age of 14 - 19 years), for 
employees exposed to arduous 
work, for persons benefiting from 
specific measures to return to the 
labour market because of a shut-
down or a reorganisation of the 
enterprise and for manual 
workers." 
63 years for men and women 
provided that the insured person: 
For details see MISSOC 
Until 1st July, 2008, men and 
women with an insurance period of 
not less than 30 years may claim 
for a pre-retirement pension two 
years before the standard 
retirement age. 
Persons are eligible for early 
retirement pension if: they have an 
insurance period of 30 years; they 
are registered as unemployed for at 
least 12 months; the age is less than 
5 years to retirement age." 
Early retirement pension: From 60 
years of age, on condition that 480 
months of effective insurance can 
be proved or assimilated periods 
can be proved. From 57 years of 
age, on condition that 480 months 
of effective insurance can be 
proved." 
Available 
For details see MISSOC. 

For persons born before 1st 
January 1952: Men: 61 years. 
Women: 60 years. Women given 
the option to retire at 61 years if 
so they wish. 
For persons born during the 
calendar years 1952 to 1955: 
Men & women 62 years. 
For persons born during the 
calendar years 1956 to 1958: 
Men & women: 63 years. 
For persons born during the 
calendar years 1959 to 1961: 
Men & women: 64 years. 
For persons born on or after 1st 

For persons born before 1st 
January 1952: No early pension. 
For persons born between 1952 and 
1961: Can retire at age 61 if they 
have 35 years of paid/credited 
weekly social security 
contributions (35 x 52 = 1820 
contributions).  
For persons born on or after 1st 
January 1962: Can retire at age 61 
if they have 40 years of 
paid/credited weekly social 
security contributions (40 x 52 = 
2080 contributions). 
In all cases, those opting for early 

35

Deferment possible up to 
the age of 65 years. 
From October 2004 until 
December 2007, 
employees from private 
sector who have reached 
the age of pension can 
decide to stay at work: 
their pension will be 
"frozen". They will 
receive their salary and a 
bonus corresponding to 
the contributions paid by 
employees and 
employers, of 33% (not 
subject to taxation). 

Deferment possible until 
the age of 68 years. 

Unlimited deferment 
possible. 

Deferment possible up to 
five years. 

No deferred pension. If 
the person is active 
beyond 65 years of age, 
the contributions paid by 
the insured are refunded 
at the end of the year. 

Unlimited deferment 
possible except in certain 
professions, civil servant, 
judges. 
Deferment possible for 
persons not opting for the 
early pension. 
Contributory pension is 
deferred if the pensioner 
opts to continue working 
after reaching the 
statutory retirement age 
and his income exceeds 
the National Minimum 
Wage. A pension will be 
awarded at age 65 
irrespective of the 
earnings of the 
beneficiary. 

 
 
NL  
AT  

January 1962: Men & women: 
65 years" 
65 years. 
Men: 65 years and Women: 60 
years.  

PL  

Women: 60 years and Men: 65 
years 

PT  

65 years. 

No deferred pension. 
Unlimited deferment 
possible. 

Increased period of 
employment reflected in 
pension formula (no 
maximum period, all 
periods are taken into 
account). 
Unlimited deferment 
possible. 

pension cannot be employed until 
age 65." 
No early retirement.  
General legislation: 62 years for 
men and women. At the earliest 60 
years for heavy workers provided 
that they have worked heavily at 
least 10 years during the preceding 
20 years, and have a total of 45 
insurance years. 
Transitional legislation: For 
persons having completed the age 
of 50 on 1 January 2005, and for 
younger persons who have already 
acquired one insurance month at 
this point in time, in addition: 
747 months of life for men. 
687 months of life for women. 
For details see MISSOC. 
Early Pension: Persons born before 
1.1.1949. For details see MISSOC. 
Persons born since 1.1.1949: No 
provisions." 

Insured persons aged at least 55 
provided that they have completed 
their qualifying period and a 
contribution period of 30 calendar 
years. The amount of pension is 
reduced. 
Unemployed: from the age of 62 
provided that they were aged 57 at 
the beginning of their 
unemployment and have completed 
the qualifying period. For those 
who have contributed 22 calendar 
years and are aged 52 or more 
when unemployed, it is also 
possible from the age of 57. In this 
case the pension amount is 
reduced. 
In case of heavy or unhealthy 
work: as a rule, from the age of 55 
(only for professions legally 
foreseen). 
From 55 years in case of specific 
measures to protect economic 
activities or companies." 

36

 
 
RO 

Old-Age Pension: The difference 
between the standard retirement 
ages for man and woman is 
maintained: 
Man: 63 years and 1 month on 1 
July 2007, increasing to 65 in 
2014.  
Woman: 58 years and 1 month 
on 1 July 2007, increasing to 60 
in 2014." 

SI  

Legal full retirement age is 61 
years for women and 63 for men. 

SK  

Old-Age Pension: 62 years. 

National pension: 65 years. 
Statutory earnings-related 
pension: Old-age pension to 
one's own choice between the 
ages of 63 to 68. In the public 
sector there are lower individual 
retirement ages. 

Flexible retirement age from 61 
to 67 years. Possibility to work 
thereafter with employers 
consent. 

FI  

SE  

UK  

NO  

Old-Age Pension with Reduced 
Standard Retirement Age (pensia 
pentru limita de varsta cu reducerea 
varstelor standard de pensionare): 
For details see MISSOC. 
Early Retirement Pension: Granted 
maximum 5 years before the 
standard retirement age to an 
insured person who exceeds the 
full contribution period by 
minimum 10 years. 
Partial Early Retirement Pension: 
Granted maximum 5 years before 
the standard retirement age to an 
insured person who exceeds the 
full contribution period by 
maximum 10 years." 
No special early pension. 
Possibility of exceptions (no 
malus) in the case of retirement at 
the age of 58 provided that a 
person has completed 40 years 
(men) or 38 (women) years of 
service. 
1st Pillar: Early pension is possible 
if the minimum duration of 
membership (10 years) and the 
minimum amount of benefit (1.2-
times of the subsistence minimum) 
have been reached. No age limit. 
2nd Pillar: Early pension is 
possible if the early pension of the 
1st pillar is received and the 
minimum amount of benefit (0.6-
times of the subsistence minimum) 
has been reached. No age limit. 
National pension (Kansaneläke) 
and Statutory earnings-related 
pension: Early old-age pension 
from the age of 62. 
In the Statutory earnings-related 
pension scheme, the early old-age 
pension will be permanently 
reduced by 0.6% for each month 
that the pension is taken early. The 
National pension is similarly 
permanently reduced by 0.4%." 
No early pension. 

Granted for an unlimited 
period to an insured 
person who is eligible for 
Old-Age Pension (pensia 
pentru limita de varsta) 
and who continues 
contributing to the public 
system of pensions' 
scheme. 

Unlimited deferment 
possible. 

Unlimited deferment 
possible. 

As a general rule, 
unlimited deferment 
possible. 

Unlimited deferment 
possible. Pension rights 
can be accrued as long as 
a person has pensionable 
earnings. 
Unlimited deferment 
possible. 
Deferment possible up to 
three years. 

State Pension age: Men: 65 
years. Women: 60 years 
67 years. 

No early State Pension. 

No early retirement.  

Source: 
http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/spsi/missoc_en.htm 

Information 

System 

Mutual 

on 

Social 

Protection 

(MISSOC) 

37

 
 
 
Annex 2 
Data frequencies (weighted results) – Module 2006 

REDUCHRS (Col.240): Employed persons (WSTATOR=1,2)  
3 
21.43% 

1 
6.29% 

2 
9.52% 

BE 
BG 
CZ 
DK 
DE 
EE 
IE 
EL 
ES 
FR 
IT  
CY 
LV 
LT 
LU 
HU 
MT 
NL 
AT 
PL 
PT 
RO 
SI 
SK 
FI 
SE 
UK 
NO 

1.25% 
12.48% 
7.85% 
2.93% 
7.44% 
4.22% 
6.98% 
15.57% 
3.57% 
1.06% 
3.69% 
3.56% 
3.69% 
9.62% 
0.00% 
10.72% 
5.92% 
6.08% 
11.02% 
1.77% 
4.04% 
2.73% 
19.90% 
16.99% 
17.53% 
9.31% 
REDUCHRS (Col.240): Not employed persons (WSTATOR=3,5) 

4.08% 
3.77% 
4.71% 
7.80% 
11.78% 
3.28% 
2.97% 
2.41% 
2.47% 
1.64% 
1.78% 
0.09% 
4.16% 
8.78% 
11.55% 
7.11% 
3.98% 
4.22% 
13.06% 
2.15% 
13.29% 
1.59% 
8.90% 
3.76% 
10.89% 
24.62% 

0.00% 
0.71% 
12.06% 
0.00% 
0.00% 
0.00% 
0.61% 
1.86% 
0.20% 
0.00% 
0.44% 
0.99% 
1.83% 
0.00% 
5.35% 
6.87% 
2.20% 
0.00% 
0.00% 
0.88% 
5.08% 
0.00% 
3.01% 
0.62% 
0.46% 
3.90% 

BE 
BG 
CZ 
DK 
DE 
EE 
IE 
EL 
ES 
FR 
IT  
CY 
LV 
LT 
LU 
HU 
MT 
NL 
AT 
PL 
PT 
RO 
SI 
SK 
FI 
SE 
UK 
NO 

1 
2.20% 

0.00% 
3.74% 
47.29% 
0.00% 
0.00% 
0.00% 
0.68% 
4.45% 
0.08% 
0.00% 
0.00% 
0.94% 
0.32% 
0.00% 
2.59% 
4.51% 
3.32% 
0.00% 
0.00% 
0.56% 
17.06% 
0.00% 
7.91% 
12.39% 
0.60% 
16.50% 

2 
1.58% 

4.13% 
8.55% 
20.87% 
4.41% 
18.62% 
3.25% 
2.49% 
1.80% 
2.05% 
2.24% 
0.69% 
0.20% 
0.60% 
1.56% 
6.12% 
7.10% 
3.62% 
11.42% 
25.46% 
1.34% 
82.94% 
0.21% 
4.00% 
39.95% 
13.38% 
83.50% 

3 
0.79% 

0.00% 
1.01% 
2.25% 
0.67% 
1.13% 
1.37% 
3.30% 
0.00% 
2.09% 
0.90% 
0.00% 
0.56% 
0.38% 
2.28% 
0.00% 
0.00% 
0.42% 
0.00% 
1.74% 
0.21% 
0.00% 
0.22% 
0.27% 
13.09% 
8.11% 
0.00% 

38

4 
52.96% 

70.83% 
12.23% 
32.58% 
29.76% 
71.31% 
77.12% 
71.93% 
76.61% 
79.21% 
68.34% 
37.76% 
18.41% 
71.97% 
22.39% 
0.00% 
63.48% 
56.54% 
12.56% 
23.02% 
59.42% 
75.16% 
58.32% 
65.73% 
65.69% 
55.34% 
53.57% 

4 
89.78% 

95.87% 
79.33% 
17.07% 
81.39% 
72.05% 
93.89% 
87.66% 
0.00% 
94.83% 
91.30% 
2.30% 
42.66% 
97.91% 
92.24% 
0.00% 
0.00% 
89.21% 
58.81% 
42.55% 
93.69% 
0.00% 
90.02% 
72.28% 
31.84% 
73.53% 
0.00% 

5 
9.80% 

23.84% 
70.81% 
42.80% 
59.51% 
9.47% 
15.38% 
17.50% 
3.55% 
14.55% 
28.96% 
56.33% 
76.94% 
18.34% 
59.21% 
83.10% 
11.82% 
31.37% 
77.14% 
52.90% 
35.78% 
2.43% 
37.36% 
2.46% 
12.94% 
15.77% 
8.61% 

5 
5.66% 

0.00% 
7.37% 
12.52% 
13.54% 
8.19% 
1.49% 
5.87% 
93.75% 
0.95% 
5.56% 
97.00% 
55.64% 
0.79% 
3.91% 
91.29% 
88.39% 
3.44% 
29.77% 
30.26% 
4.21% 
0.00% 
9.55% 
15.54% 
2.73% 
4.38% 
0.00% 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
PLAGESTP (Col.241/242): Employed persons (WSTATOR=1,2) 

50-59 
12.11% 
4.49% 
15.34% 
0.67% 
1.67% 
0.42% 
2.50% 
1.31% 
2.54% 
21.63% 
12.82% 
2.02% 
0.53% 
0.88% 
16.10% 
6.40% 
2.07% 
4.67% 
17.01% 
5.35% 
1.35% 
2.32% 
27.58% 
3.54% 
3.44% 
0.93% 
3.90% 
0.76% 

BE  
BG  
CZ  
DK  
DE  
EE  
IE  
EL  
ES  
FR  
IT  
CY  
LV  
LT  
LU  
HU  
MT  
NL  
AT  
PL  
PT  
RO 
SI  
SK  
FI  
SE  
UK  
NO  
PLAGESTP (Col.241/242): Not employed persons (WSTATOR=3,5) 

65+ 
20.72% 
6.32% 
14.17% 
26.39% 
46.70% 
1.65% 
23.40% 
9.40% 
25.65% 
12.49% 
11.99% 
10.87% 
8.93% 
1.22% 
8.04% 
2.03% 
1.50% 
29.77% 
15.24% 
6.90% 
11.75% 
1.13% 
7.81% 
1.24% 
17.46% 
29.43% 
28.68% 
10.16% 

60-64 
24.10% 
20.60% 
48.24% 
51.86% 
29.22% 
4.46% 
9.12% 
2.27% 
16.57% 
49.45% 
18.41% 
28.14% 
21.47% 
13.27% 
19.81% 
23.39% 
41.57% 
38.44% 
46.46% 
9.42% 
2.51% 
2.83% 
24.87% 
13.74% 
40.42% 
13.29% 
24.50% 
16.87% 

95 
12.00% 
10.59% 
7.28% 
6.34% 
7.18% 
9.00% 
9.40% 
31.07% 
4.91% 
3.12% 
2.77% 
5.61% 
12.93% 
21.08% 
22.19% 
24.26% 
36.86% 
8.72% 
6.63% 
12.22% 
9.22% 
13.49% 
8.00% 
17.03% 
15.65% 
18.49% 
8.65% 
27.23% 

94 
6.69% 
5.26% 
2.65% 
1.14% 
0.92% 
1.32% 
2.88% 
6.86% 
2.16% 
2.11% 
1.92% 
0.78% 
2.25% 
1.94% 
6.83% 
9.40% 
2.73% 
1.86% 
4.07% 
8.45% 
1.91% 
11.11% 
9.25% 
9.94% 
3.27% 
0.95% 
1.39% 
0.88% 

BE  
BG  
CZ  
DK  
DE  
EE  
IE  
EL  
ES  
FR  
IT  
CY  
LV  
LT  
LU  
HU  
MT  
NL  
AT  
PL  
PT  
RO 
SI  
SK  
FI  
SE  
UK  
NO  

50-59 
4.75% 
0.39% 
1.93% 
0.13% 
0.21% 
1.14% 
0.91% 
0.00% 
0.40% 
0.00% 
0.16% 
0.00% 
0.00% 
0.25% 
0.27% 
1.42% 
0.36% 
0.87% 
0.18% 
0.60% 
0.14% 
0.00% 
0.65% 
0.84% 
0.08% 
1.01% 
0.00% 
0.00 

60-64 
6.10% 
2.70% 
3.41% 
4.74% 
4.31% 
0.51% 
0.90% 
0.25% 
1.96% 
0.00% 
0.45% 
1.42% 
0.00% 
0.47% 
1.24% 
1.93% 
2.36% 
2.32% 
0.73% 
0.76% 
0.14% 
0.00% 
1.04% 
4.57% 
1.40% 
3.41% 
1.94% 
1.94 

65+ 
6.85% 
1.07% 
0.81% 
2.12% 
5.15% 
0.50% 
2.75% 
0.32% 
5.89% 
0.00% 
0.71% 
0.91% 
0.00% 
0.34% 
0.41% 
0.56% 
3.49% 
1.22% 
0.76% 
1.72% 
0.06% 
0.00% 
0.03% 
4.28% 
4.49% 
3.78% 
3.60% 
3.60 

94 
0.48% 
0.58% 
0.46% 
0.00% 
0.26% 
1.12% 
0.55% 
0.16% 
0.26% 
0.00% 
0.12% 
0.39% 
0.00% 
0.12% 
0.63% 
0.00% 
0.01% 
0.32% 
0.90% 
0.68% 
0.74% 
0.00% 
1.63% 
0.91% 
0.02% 
0.64% 
0.00% 
0.00 

95 
1.85% 
1.57% 
0.29% 
0.40% 
1.36% 
1.72% 
0.67% 
0.88% 
0.66% 
0.00% 
0.16% 
0.88% 
0.00% 
1.15% 
1.30% 
0.00% 
0.42% 
0.83% 
1.44% 
1.85% 
0.63% 
0.00% 
1.44% 
2.55% 
0.65% 
1.38% 
0.00% 
0.00 

39

96 
9.85% 
30.75% 
6.83% 
10.81% 
4.28% 
51.94% 
29.55% 
29.62% 
16.79% 
9.11% 
46.38% 
40.29% 
8.16% 
8.62% 
11.24% 
21.51% 
2.50% 
10.90% 
3.63% 
12.73% 
33.52% 
59.14% 
12.42% 
35.41% 
6.96% 
23.29% 
25.10% 
18.20% 

96 
0.62% 
4.11% 
0.26% 
2.34% 
0.58% 
3.72% 
2.59% 
1.30% 
2.49% 
0.00% 
3.49% 
2.90% 
0.00% 
0.17% 
1.51% 
0.00% 
1.66% 
0.30% 
0.92% 
3.41% 
3.59% 
0.00% 
1.46% 
1.89% 
2.21% 
5.25% 
0.00% 
0.00 

97 
14.04% 
21.99% 
5.49% 
2.80% 
10.03% 
31.20% 
23.14% 
19.46% 
31.12% 
2.10% 
5.65% 
12.29% 
43.80% 
52.99% 
15.63% 
13.01% 
12.13% 
5.27% 
6.93% 
44.91% 
39.73% 
9.98% 
10.07% 
19.10% 
12.80% 
13.61% 
7.78% 
25.91% 

97 
2.24% 
4.24% 
0.46% 
0.67% 
1.29% 
8.09% 
3.97% 
1.07% 
7.90% 
0.00% 
0.47% 
3.40% 
0.00% 
1.03% 
1.77% 
0.00% 
0.51% 
0.80% 
5.94% 
6.62% 
2.27% 
8.00% 
3.78% 
5.43% 
5.28% 
3.67% 
0.00% 
0.00 

98 
0.48% 
0.00% 
0.00% 
0.00% 
0.00% 
0.00% 
0.00% 
0.02% 
0.25% 
0.00% 
0.06% 
0.00% 
1.93% 
0.00% 
0.17% 
0.00% 
0.64% 
0.35% 
0.04% 
0.00% 
0.00% 
0.00% 
0.00% 
0.00% 
0.00% 
0.00% 
0.00% 
0.00% 

98 
77.10% 
85.33% 
92.39% 
89.59% 
86.85% 
83.20% 
87.67% 
96.03% 
80.44% 
100.00% 
94.45% 
90.11% 
100.00% 
96.47% 
92.87% 
96.09% 
91.19% 
93.34% 
89.10% 
84.35% 
92.43% 
92.00% 
89.97% 
79.52% 
85.87% 
80.85% 
94.46% 
94.46 

 
 
 
STATAFT (Col.243): 

Unemployed 
16.39% 
10.03% 
6.96% 
16.07% 
21.15% 
13.03% 
8.83% 
4.54% 
21.13% 
20.77% 
8.24% 
12.93% 
16.26% 
16.06% 
2.83% 
7.61% 
3.91% 
11.17% 
8.86% 
10.30% 
22.40% 
3.85% 
13.60% 
10.10% 
33.31% 
14.87% 
11.53% 
9.16% 

BE 
BG 
CZ 
DK 
DE 
EE 
IE 
EL 
ES 
FR 
IT 
CY 
LV 
LT 
LU 
HU 
MT 
NL 
AT 
PL 
PT 
RO 
SI 
SK 
FI 
SE 
UK 
NO 
REASRET (Col.244): 

In retirement or early retirement 
40.28% 
83.38% 
78.31% 
62.74% 
62.20% 
63.91% 
66.89% 
77.79% 
33.02% 
58.53% 
67.85% 
46.43% 
70.29% 
66.22% 
71.40% 
68.45% 
80.32% 
57.73% 
71.63% 
53.73% 
49.91% 
83.97% 
64.51% 
78.07% 
39.56% 
66.43% 
61.64% 
31.28% 

Long term sick or disabled 
8.78% 
5.83% 
12.86% 
13.34% 
10.02% 
20.43% 
17.27% 
7.45% 
20.34% 
10.50% 
4.61% 
15.57% 
8.77% 
14.92% 
18.58% 
20.10% 
9.61% 
18.93% 
17.33% 
18.79% 
21.99% 
10.10% 
5.32% 
8.59% 
24.60% 
10.62% 
17.24% 
51.51% 

Other 
34.55% 
0.77% 
1.86% 
7.84% 
6.63% 
2.63% 
7.01% 
10.22% 
25.52% 
10.19% 
19.30% 
25.07% 
4.68% 
2.80% 
7.18% 
3.83% 
6.16% 
12.17% 
2.17% 
17.19% 
5.70% 
2.07% 
16.57% 
3.24% 
2.53% 
8.08% 
9.58% 
8.05% 

5 
2.47% 
0.67% 
3.20% 
5.09% 
0.67% 
5.62% 
2.91% 
0.11% 
2.51% 
0.81% 
2.43% 
0.67% 
0.96% 
0.76% 
1.24% 
2.11% 
2.05% 
0.69% 
1.62% 
2.96% 
2.22% 
4.33% 
1.51% 
2.10% 
5.80% 
2.14% 
4.44% 
3.75% 

6 
10.40% 
0.03% 
2.04% 
3.35% 
10.22% 
1.78% 
10.06% 
0.32% 
6.47% 
26.58% 
2.72% 
7.75% 
1.73% 
0.88% 
2.39% 
4.79% 
1.62% 
32.09% 
6.04% 
15.98% 
10.45% 
1.67% 
0.44% 
12.43% 
3.31% 
10.02% 
13.04% 
12.48% 

7 
11.21% 
0.74% 
80.54% 
29.20% 
0.00% 
36.93% 
25.77% 
36.73% 
13.00% 
5.26% 
35.28% 
15.59% 
4.44% 
0.00% 
2.42% 
5.02% 
4.54% 
28.77% 
51.38% 
5.56% 
7.87% 
5.36% 
3.01% 
62.34% 
23.44% 
16.66% 
16.74% 
19.23% 

8 
19.76% 
0.00% 
2.35% 
6.51% 
13.33% 
0.14% 
7.50% 
0.80% 
6.45% 
4.76% 
3.06% 
1.10% 
3.89% 
2.23% 
2.12% 
1.72% 
0.47% 
11.40% 
4.65% 
3.91% 
10.25% 
0.82% 
77.82% 
13.17% 
14.71% 
7.89% 
16.30% 
12.71% 

BE 
BG 
CZ 
DK 
DE 
EE 
IE 
EL 
ES 
FR 
IT 
CY 
LV 
LT 
LU 
HU 
MT 
NL 
AT 
PL 
PT 
RO 
SI 
SK 
FI 
SE 
UK 
NO 

1 
3.98% 
5.63% 
6.79% 
7.03% 
10.16% 
20.22% 
7.01% 
0.23% 
5.11% 
2.49% 
2.57% 
3.48% 
9.12% 
5.25% 
0.26% 
3.77% 
0.00% 
5.81% 
8.13% 
14.48% 
2.00% 
5.16% 
1.19% 
4.17% 
8.68% 
3.68% 
6.13% 
1.78% 

2 
44.18% 
88.81% 
0.48% 
22.88% 
43.42% 
18.53% 
22.73% 
60.12% 
48.32% 
55.39% 
46.71% 
65.87% 
68.28% 
84.11% 
83.30% 
76.22% 
73.34% 
16.15% 
10.75% 
48.77% 
46.10% 
76.47% 
4.11% 
0.00% 
24.05% 
39.07% 
22.40% 
29.70% 

3 
7.70% 
3.40% 
4.03% 
22.83% 
21.43% 
12.00% 
20.54% 
1.33% 
16.21% 
4.48% 
4.81% 
5.54% 
10.51% 
5.64% 
8.18% 
6.05% 
17.05% 
4.22% 
15.46% 
7.15% 
19.90% 
5.96% 
11.48% 
3.53% 
18.83% 
19.53% 
15.44% 
20.12% 

4 
0.30% 
0.71% 
0.57% 
3.11% 
0.78% 
4.78% 
3.49% 
0.37% 
1.93% 
0.22% 
2.42% 
0.00% 
1.06% 
1.14% 
0.09% 
0.33% 
0.93% 
0.86% 
1.97% 
1.19% 
1.20% 
0.24% 
0.43% 
2.26% 
1.19% 
1.02% 
5.51% 
0.23% 

40

 
 
 
FLEXWORK (Col.245): 

BE 
BG 
CZ 
DK 
DE 
EE 
IE 
EL 
ES 
FR 
IT 
CY 
LV 
LT 
LU 
HU 
MT 
NL 
AT 
PL 
PT 
RO 
SI 
SK 
FI 
SE 
UK 
NO 
OPSKILL (Col.246): 

BE 
BG 
CZ 
DK 
DE 
EE 
IE 
EL 
ES 
FR 
IT 
CY 
LV 
LT 
LU 
HU 
MT 
NL 
AT 
PL 
PT 
RO 
SI 
SK 
FI 
SE 
UK 
NO 

Yes (employed) 
14.60% 
41.62% 
12.08% 
35.48% 
9.39% 
12.41% 
17.51% 
9.92% 
19.68% 
15.66% 
17.23% 
24.48% 
37.91% 
73.27% 
3.16% 
25.94% 
31.60% 
29.47% 
6.21% 
32.36% 
17.11% 
23.33% 
11.23% 
8.50% 
18.78% 
29.95% 
24.19% 
29.80% 

Yes (employed) 
6.82% 
16.84% 
5.42% 
10.80% 
4.66% 
5.23% 
3.10% 
7.34% 
14.63% 
11.48% 
9.14% 
4.16% 
25.50% 
49.87% 
2.14% 
7.78% 
29.91% 
7.20% 
2.24% 
13.59% 
11.62% 
14.14% 
5.34% 
4.47% 
5.08% 
23.59% 
15.11% 
13.47% 

Yes (not employed) 
10.60% 
14.71% 
4.27% 
25.70% 
5.70% 
5.97% 
5.10% 
6.61% 
12.62% 
7.28% 
11.90% 
11.17% 
20.98% 
23.40% 
2.87% 
9.84% 
27.10% 
22.42% 
4.20% 
17.70% 
9.73% 
8.98% 
9.79% 
8.29% 
7.59% 
13.10% 
9.17% 
14.51% 

Yes (not employed) 
6.34% 
3.49% 
1.38% 
9.57% 
4.17% 
3.58% 
1.06% 
5.78% 
9.52% 
7.44% 
5.47% 
1.91% 
13.61% 
12.12% 
0.81% 
3.45% 
23.14% 
7.48% 
1.42% 
9.47% 
7.61% 
6.87% 
5.12% 
4.62% 
2.65% 
13.36% 
5.79% 
6.47% 

No (not employed) 
89.40% 
85.29% 
95.73% 
74.30% 
94.30% 
94.03% 
94.90% 
93.39% 
87.38% 
92.72% 
88.10% 
88.83% 
79.02% 
76.60% 
97.13% 
90.16% 
72.90% 
77.58% 
95.80% 
82.30% 
90.27% 
91.02% 
90.21% 
91.71% 
92.41% 
86.90% 
90.83% 
85.49% 

No (not employed) 
93.66% 
96.51% 
98.62% 
90.43% 
95.83% 
96.42% 
98.94% 
94.22% 
90.48% 
92.56% 
94.53% 
98.09% 
86.39% 
87.88% 
99.19% 
96.55% 
76.86% 
92.52% 
98.58% 
90.53% 
92.39% 
93.13% 
94.88% 
95.38% 
97.35% 
86.64% 
94.21% 
93.53% 

No (employed) 
85.40% 
58.38% 
87.92% 
64.52% 
90.61% 
87.59% 
82.49% 
90.08% 
80.32% 
84.34% 
82.77% 
75.52% 
62.09% 
26.73% 
96.84% 
74.06% 
68.40% 
70.53% 
93.79% 
67.64% 
82.89% 
76.67% 
88.77% 
91.50% 
81.22% 
70.05% 
75.81% 
70.20% 

No (employed) 
93.18% 
83.16% 
94.58% 
89.20% 
95.34% 
94.77% 
96.90% 
92.66% 
85.37% 
88.52% 
90.86% 
95.84% 
74.50% 
50.13% 
97.86% 
92.22% 
70.09% 
92.80% 
97.76% 
86.41% 
88.38% 
85.86% 
94.66% 
95.53% 
94.92% 
76.41% 
84.89% 
86.53% 

41

 
 
 
HLTHSAF (Col.247): 

BE 
BG 
CZ 
DK 
DE 
EE 
IE 
EL 
ES 
FR 
IT 
CY 
LV 
LT 
LU 
HU 
MT 
NL 
AT 
PL 
PT 
RO 
SI 
SK 
FI 
SE 
UK 
NO 

Yes (employed) 
85.80% 
63.89% 
91.65% 
90.15% 
92.66% 
33.43% 
93.79% 
87.78% 
81.12% 
94.51% 
86.97% 
90.58% 
58.34% 
28.14% 
93.44% 
74.87% 
68.70% 
92.95% 
96.20% 
83.20% 
87.37% 
71.00% 
89.72% 
94.75% 
93.65% 
85.43% 
89.41% 
76.27% 

No (employed) 
14.20% 
36.11% 
8.35% 
9.85% 
7.34% 
66.57% 
6.21% 
12.22% 
18.88% 
5.49% 
13.03% 
9.42% 
41.66% 
71.86% 
6.56% 
25.13% 
31.30% 
7.05% 
3.80% 
16.80% 
12.63% 
29.00% 
10.28% 
5.25% 
6.35% 
14.57% 
10.59% 
23.73% 

Yes (not employed) 
81.47% 
89.70% 
95.62% 
89.23% 
92.59% 
50.71% 
91.63% 
89.82% 
87.94% 
97.01% 
89.72% 
96.62% 
73.86% 
73.76% 
84.42% 
85.48% 
73.72% 
92.95% 
96.14% 
87.21% 
91.49% 
86.00% 
89.49% 
94.19% 
94.87% 
87.19% 
94.85% 
88.12% 

No (not employed) 
18.53% 
10.30% 
4.38% 
10.77% 
7.41% 
49.29% 
8.37% 
10.18% 
12.06% 
2.99% 
10.28% 
3.38% 
26.14% 
26.24% 
15.58% 
14.52% 
26.28% 
7.05% 
3.86% 
12.79% 
8.51% 
14.00% 
10.51% 
5.81% 
5.13% 
12.81% 
5.15% 
11.88% 

42

 
 
 
AGEPENS (Col.248/249): Employed persons (WSTATOR=1,2) 

BE 
BG 
CZ 
DK 
DE 
EE 
IE 
EL 
ES 
FR 
IT 
CY 
LV 
LT 
LU 
HU 
MT 
NL 
AT 
PL 
PT 
RO 
SI 
SK 
FI 
SE 
UK 
NO 

00-54 
0.49% 
3.32% 
0.26% 
0.58% 
0.71% 
1.73% 
1.12% 
0.44% 
0.36% 
0.93% 
1.25% 
0.18% 
2.33% 
1.38% 
0.03% 
1.33% 
0.00% 
0.86% 
0.03% 
2.52% 
2.97% 
4.49% 
2.35% 
1.47% 
0.31% 
0.34% 
7.97% 
1.24% 

55-59 
0.15% 
6.28% 
4.57% 
0.30% 
0.49% 
15.12% 
0.76% 
0.52% 
0.25% 
0.62% 
2.69% 
0.59% 
8.30% 
8.34% 
0.08% 
4.38% 
0.25% 
1.37% 
2.12% 
4.90% 
2.65% 
13.60% 
2.78% 
3.57% 
3.03% 
1.90% 
4.09% 
0.49% 

60-64 
1.53% 
2.52% 
3.27% 
1.53% 
5.82% 
7.07% 
0.65% 
0.51% 
0.55% 
1.33% 
1.96% 
6.41% 
10.98% 
6.68% 
0.00% 
3.15% 
2.54% 
1.29% 
2.60% 
3.10% 
2.96% 
6.75% 
2.70% 
2.02% 
2.41% 
3.62% 
9.01% 
2.11% 

AGEPENS (Col.248/249): Not employed persons (WSTATOR=3,5) 

BE 
BG 
CZ 
DK 
DE 
EE 
IE 
EL 
ES 
FR 
IT 
CY 
LV 
LT 
LU 
HU 
MT 
NL 
AT 
PL 
PT 
RO 
SI 
SK 
FI 
SE 
UK 
NO 

00-54 
4.66% 
14.31% 
9.33% 
4.35% 
5.84% 
8.99% 
4.90% 
14.92% 
5.28% 
4.71% 
22.54% 
1.73% 
5.18% 
3.26% 
2.55% 
17.10% 
0.95% 
1.02% 
6.62% 
13.14% 
15.40% 
31.93% 
10.04% 
25.56% 
1.13% 
0.76% 
12.39% 
3.49% 

55-59 
6.70% 
53.35% 
46.80% 
4.38% 
13.10% 
49.39% 
11.56% 
26.72% 
8.81% 
19.49% 
37.27% 
13.55% 
48.49% 
43.42% 
28.75% 
46.69% 
1.54% 
1.80% 
38.68% 
33.44% 
24.02% 
42.58% 
16.89% 
42.17% 
10.21% 
6.47% 
17.82% 
5.22% 

60-64 
29.96% 
15.55% 
22.95% 
26.51% 
56.96% 
23.23% 
14.20% 
21.16% 
23.74% 
46.08% 
21.69% 
35.33% 
28.65% 
27.68% 
29.66% 
21.47% 
68.25% 
2.66% 
28.34% 
18.06% 
20.06% 
10.87% 
19.83% 
19.33% 
26.50% 
24.63% 
41.05% 
25.82% 

43

65+ 
0.96% 
0.05% 
0.08% 
1.80% 
6.79% 
0.41% 
2.34% 
1.93% 
0.42% 
0.27% 
0.89% 
1.48% 
0.00% 
0.07% 
0.00% 
0.03% 
0.47% 
1.15% 
0.97% 
1.87% 
5.99% 
0.20% 
2.48% 
0.07% 
1.30% 
2.79% 
2.06% 
1.12% 

65+ 
13.25% 
0.26% 
0.46% 
14.66% 
11.83% 
1.82% 
24.86% 
21.88% 
20.18% 
3.67% 
5.67% 
7.77% 
0.32% 
0.13% 
9.07% 
0.35% 
0.30% 
9.68% 
1.88% 
5.59% 
15.58% 
0.40% 
22.92% 
0.47% 
17.95% 
35.34% 
12.02% 
12.73% 

97 
5.65% 
1.61% 
5.63% 
32.36% 
72.38% 
0.81% 
26.22% 
19.00% 
27.96% 
16.41% 
8.06% 
4.97% 
1.11% 
0.57% 
4.41% 
2.54% 
3.73% 
8.34% 
7.46% 
5.39% 
22.50% 
22.97% 
4.55% 
4.78% 
5.02% 
26.64% 
7.82% 
7.53% 

97 
4.38% 
1.42% 
5.53% 
0.47% 
9.80% 
0.88% 
6.20% 
4.70% 
9.16% 
5.32% 
1.64% 
0.89% 
1.05% 
0.00% 
0.53% 
0.53% 
1.65% 
1.69% 
1.92% 
4.69% 
6.30% 
6.81% 
7.92% 
1.44% 
0.16% 
23.16% 
2.02% 
2.88% 

98 
91.22% 
86.22% 
86.21% 
63.43% 
13.81% 
74.85% 
68.91% 
77.60% 
70.47% 
80.44% 
85.16% 
86.38% 
77.28% 
82.96% 
95.48% 
88.58% 
93.02% 
86.99% 
86.83% 
82.22% 
62.94% 
52.00% 
85.14% 
88.09% 
87.93% 
64.71% 
69.06% 
87.52% 

98 
41.06% 
15.11% 
14.93% 
49.62% 
2.48% 
15.70% 
38.28% 
10.63% 
32.83% 
20.73% 
11.18% 
40.73% 
16.31% 
25.51% 
29.44% 
13.86% 
27.31% 
83.15% 
22.55% 
25.08% 
18.64% 
7.41% 
22.39% 
11.03% 
44.05% 
9.64% 
14.71% 
49.87% 

 
 
 
 
4 
0.66% 
0.91% 
2.57% 
0.00% 
0.34% 
0.00% 
0.32% 
0.88% 
0.31% 
0.10% 
0.62% 
0.37% 
0.00% 
0.57% 
0.00% 
0.01% 
15.59% 
0.92% 
0.79% 
0.18% 
0.75% 
0.11% 
0.81% 
0.29% 
0.00% 
0.83% 
0.00% 
8.87% 

5 
81.06% 
87.50% 
83.06% 
57.26% 
92.12% 
91.14% 
57.41% 
81.08% 
82.44% 
90.71% 
89.14% 
85.32% 
91.08% 
81.88% 
76.14% 
89.30% 
56.11% 
80.04% 
81.10% 
76.12% 
78.42% 
89.07% 
88.48% 
92.51% 
76.54% 
86.07% 
86.69% 
52.99% 

OTHBENF (Col.250): 

BE 
BG 
CZ 
DK 
DE 
EE 
IE 
EL 
ES 
FR 
IT 
CY 
LV 
LT 
LU 
HU 
MT 
NL 
AT 
PL 
PT 
RO 
SI 
SK 
FI 
SE 
UK 
NO 

1 
6.29% 
8.12% 
7.26% 
12.19% 
1.53% 
8.86% 
15.74% 
5.17% 
9.17% 
2.77% 
4.17% 
7.28% 
4.99% 
13.65% 
14.90% 
9.33% 
12.41% 
6.06% 
7.49% 
10.54% 
16.28% 
9.94% 
8.26% 
6.11% 
16.10% 
4.81% 
0.00% 
29.22% 

FININCTV (Col.251): 

BE 
BG 
CZ 
DK 
DE 
EE 
IE 
EL 
ES 
FR 
IT 
CY 
LV 
LT 
LU 
HU 
MT 
NL 
AT 
PL 
PT 
RO 
SI 
SK 
FI 
SE 
UK 
NO 

1 
20.18% 
12.97% 
9.48% 
29.74% 
12.75% 
18.94% 
14.73% 
63.38% 
24.50% 
32.41% 
2.53% 
13.89% 
6.54% 
14.65% 
7.16% 
18.06% 
13.66% 
10.30% 
26.95% 
12.07% 
14.34% 
18.95% 
9.69% 
14.52% 
13.03% 
12.72% 
11.90% 
14.80% 

3 
1.04% 
3.48% 
1.87% 
0.00% 
3.83% 
0.00% 
14.10% 
11.81% 
3.62% 
2.12% 
0.32% 
7.03% 
0.95% 
1.92% 
0.65% 
1.36% 
11.80% 
7.57% 
2.75% 
4.62% 
0.52% 
0.87% 
1.67% 
1.10% 
0.00% 
4.37% 
13.31% 
4.12% 

3 
38.21% 
6.33% 
30.88% 
0.00% 
75.04% 
8.85% 
18.45% 
5.53% 
20.85% 
33.67% 
93.71% 
31.54% 
12.63% 
5.65% 
70.60% 
32.02% 
37.73% 
49.05% 
60.90% 
29.04% 
22.79% 
2.42% 
54.44% 
19.75% 
63.93% 
63.20% 
29.55% 
67.03% 

2 
10.95% 
0.00% 
5.24% 
30.54% 
2.18% 
0.00% 
12.43% 
1.06% 
4.47% 
4.31% 
5.75% 
0.00% 
2.98% 
1.98% 
8.32% 
0.00% 
4.09% 
5.42% 
7.88% 
8.54% 
4.03% 
0.00% 
0.77% 
0.00% 
7.36% 
3.92% 
0.00% 
4.81% 

2 
41.61% 
80.70% 
59.63% 
70.26% 
12.21% 
72.21% 
66.82% 
31.08% 
54.65% 
33.92% 
3.77% 
54.57% 
80.83% 
79.70% 
22.24% 
49.92% 
48.61% 
40.65% 
12.14% 
58.89% 
62.87% 
78.63% 
35.87% 
65.73% 
23.04% 
24.08% 
58.55% 
18.17% 

44

 
 
 
 
YEARSPNT (Col.252/253): Employed persons (WSTATOR=1,2) 

BE 
BG 
CZ 
DK 
DE 
EE 
IE 
EL 
ES 
FR 
IT 
CY 
LV 
LT 
LU 
HU 
MT 
NL 
AT 
PL 
PT 
RO 
SI 
SK 
FI 
SE 
UK 
NO 

00-24 
6.51% 
6.70% 
2.41% 
4.76% 
13.73% 
2.17% 
13.92% 
19.24% 
19.14% 
11.46% 
13.67% 
11.15% 
4.95% 
5.38% 
13.80% 
3.54% 
2.21% 
18.40% 
11.62% 
7.06% 
5.18% 
14.08% 
7.74% 
3.23% 
6.21% 
3.66% 
9.18% 
8.60% 

25-29 
11.34% 
21.98% 
13.55% 
7.81% 
9.38% 
9.00% 
7.95% 
26.54% 
10.90% 
10.81% 
16.30% 
12.26% 
15.20% 
17.88% 
13.13% 
11.88% 
4.11% 
11.06% 
8.58% 
15.51% 
6.49% 
20.40% 
13.74% 
18.09% 
12.92% 
8.38% 
9.35% 
14.73% 

30-34 
31.87% 
41.39% 
40.81% 
18.42% 
21.34% 
32.38% 
23.83% 
27.04% 
24.38% 
31.13% 
32.89% 
25.69% 
35.61% 
37.32% 
29.08% 
38.13% 
22.46% 
22.01% 
23.04% 
34.65% 
17.12% 
34.89% 
40.30% 
45.30% 
29.77% 
26.10% 
21.13% 
28.92% 

35-39 
30.53% 
22.15% 
31.12% 
29.70% 
28.55% 
29.01% 
22.07% 
14.57% 
24.40% 
30.17% 
25.15% 
25.49% 
23.05% 
23.98% 
32.49% 
33.22% 
39.20% 
25.20% 
32.02% 
27.10% 
20.97% 
19.47% 
32.16% 
26.88% 
27.57% 
27.20% 
25.67% 
23.36% 

YEARSPNT (Col.252/253): Not employed persons (WSTATOR=3,5) 

BE 
BG 
CZ 
DK 
DE 
EE 
IE 
EL 
ES 
FR 
IT 
CY 
LV 
LT 
LU 
HU 
MT 
NL 
AT 
PL 
PT 
RO 
SI 
SK 
FI 
SE 
UK 
NO 

00-24 
6.92% 
4.29% 
0.65% 
7.13% 
9.08% 
2.32% 
15.76% 
6.64% 
22.58% 
10.62% 
9.71% 
20.11% 
3.79% 
1.58% 
8.59% 
4.70% 
1.98% 
13.10% 
6.77% 
5.79% 
6.43% 
7.15% 
5.40% 
0.98% 
8.46% 
5.67% 
10.35% 
12.90% 

25-29 
4.99% 
11.91% 
6.02% 
5.21% 
4.96% 
4.24% 
4.53% 
11.19% 
5.97% 
5.02% 
6.06% 
7.85% 
7.52% 
7.55% 
4.09% 
7.76% 
2.78% 
6.23% 
5.95% 
7.99% 
6.23% 
13.38% 
4.22% 
7.88% 
8.65% 
5.14% 
7.47% 
10.32% 

35-39 
31.46% 
34.11% 
41.13% 
16.59% 
20.75% 
34.15% 
16.38% 
32.10% 
16.57% 
27.69% 
50.50% 
20.11% 
35.64% 
36.32% 
22.49% 
39.23% 
24.19% 
19.79% 
29.53% 
34.65% 
20.42% 
31.25% 
43.61% 
39.31% 
25.17% 
16.40% 
21.33% 
19.68% 

30-34 
17.63% 
40.97% 
26.05% 
10.20% 
11.53% 
17.84% 
14.16% 
27.65% 
16.05% 
13.35% 
12.27% 
14.40% 
30.50% 
27.92% 
12.15% 
24.56% 
11.62% 
12.53% 
11.97% 
32.31% 
15.55% 
36.95% 
24.13% 
31.58% 
18.94% 
11.57% 
14.28% 
19.36% 

45

40+ 
19.75% 
7.78% 
12.11% 
39.31% 
26.99% 
27.44% 
32.23% 
12.61% 
21.18% 
16.43% 
11.99% 
25.40% 
21.19% 
15.44% 
11.50% 
13.23% 
32.02% 
23.33% 
24.74% 
15.67% 
50.23% 
11.17% 
6.06% 
6.49% 
23.53% 
34.66% 
34.67% 
24.39% 

40+ 
39.00% 
8.72% 
26.15% 
60.88% 
53.68% 
41.46% 
49.17% 
22.42% 
38.83% 
43.33% 
21.45% 
37.52% 
22.55% 
26.63% 
52.68% 
23.74% 
59.43% 
48.34% 
45.78% 
19.26% 
51.36% 
11.27% 
22.64% 
20.25% 
38.79% 
61.22% 
46.56% 
37.74% 

 
 
 
 
Annex 3 

List of variables – Module 2006 

Specification of the 2006 ad hoc module on “Transition from work into 
retirement” 

1: 

all Member States and regions are concerned. 

Var. name 

REDUCHRS 

2006 
Column 
240 

Code 

Description 

Filters 

Person reduced his/her working hours in a move to full retirement 

Everybody aged 50-69 and 
((WSTATOR=3, 5 and 
(YEARPR-YEARBIR)>49) or 
(WSTATOR=1, 2)) 

PLAGESTP 

241/242 

STATAFT 

243 

REASRET 

244 

1 
2 
3 
4 
5 

9 
Blank 

50-93 
94 
95 
96 

97 
98 
99 
Blank 

1 
2 
3 
4 
9 
Blank 

1 
2 
3 
4 
5 
6 
7 
8 
9 
Blank 

Yes, in a progressive retirement scheme/part-time pension 
Yes, but not in a progressive retirement scheme/part-time pension 
No, but plans to do so within the next 5 years 
No, and plans not to do so within the next 5 years/did not do so 
No, and does not know about plans for the next 5 years or plans are not 
relevant 
Not applicable (not included in the filter) 
No answer 

Planned age for stopping all work for pay or profit 

2 digits 
No exact planned age, but it will be before 60 years old 
No exact planned age, but it will be between 60 and 64 years old 
No exact planned age, but it will be at 65 years old or after or plans to work 
as long as possible 
No exact planned age and does not know at all when it will be 
Has already stopped all work for pay or profit 
Not applicable (not included in the filter) 
No answer  

Main labour status just after leaving last job or business 

Everybody aged 50-69 and 
((WSTATOR=3, 5 and 
(YEARPR-YEARBIR)>49)  
or (WSTATOR=1, 2)) 

Everybody aged 50-69 and 
WSTATOR=3, 5 and YEARPR-
YEARBIR>49 

Unemployed 
In retirement or early retirement 
Long term sick or disabled 
Other 
Not applicable (not included in the filter) 
No answer 

Main reason for retirement or early retirement 

C243=2 

Job lost 
Had reached compulsory retirement age 
Own health or disability 
Care responsibilities 
Problems related to job 
Favourable financial arrangements to leave 
Preference to stop working other than previous codes 
Other 
Not applicable (not included in the filter)  
No answer  

FLEXWORK 

245 

More flexible working time arrangements would have contributed to 
person staying longer at work/would contribute to person staying 
longer at work 

Everybody aged 50-69 and 
((WSTATOR=3, 5 and 
(YEARPR-YEARBIR)>49)  
or (WSTATOR=1, 2)) 

1 
2 
9 
Blank 

Yes 
No 
Not applicable (not included in the filter)  
No answer  

46

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Var. name 

OPPSKILL 

2006 
Column 
246 

Code 

Description 

Filters 

More opportunities to update skills would have contributed to person 
staying longer at work/would contribute to person staying longer at 
work 

Everybody aged 50-69 and 
((WSTATOR=3, 5 and 
(YEARPR-YEARBIR)>49)  
or (WSTATOR=1, 2)) 

1 
2 
9 
Blank 

Yes 
No 
Not applicable (not included in the filter)  
No answer  

HLTHSAF 

247 

Better health and/or safety at workplace would have contributed to 
person staying longer at work/would contribute to person staying 
longer at work 

Everybody aged 50-69 and 
((WSTATOR=3, 5 and 
(YEARPR-YEARBIR)>49)  
or (WSTATOR=1, 2)) 

1 
2 
9 
Blank 

Yes 
No 
Not applicable (not included in the filter) 
No answer  

AGEPENS 

248/249 

Age at which person started to receive an individual retirement 
pension 

97 
98 
99 
Blank 

1 
2 
3 
4 
5 
9 
Blank 

1 
2 
3 
9 
Blank 

OTHBENF 

250 

FININCTV 

251 

YEARSPNT 

252/253 

2 digits 
Does not receive an individual retirement pension even though is entitled to 
Is not/not yet entitled to an individual retirement pension 
Not applicable (not included in the filter)  
No answer  
Person receives an individual pension or individual benefits, other than 
a retirement pension and unemployment benefits, such as a disability 
pension, a sick pension or an early retirement scheme allowance 

Yes, a disability pension or a sick pension 
Yes, an early retirement scheme allowance 
Yes, another individual benefit not elsewhere classified 
Yes, combination of codes 1, 2 or 3 
No 
Not applicable (not included in the filter)  
No answer 

Main financial incentive to stay at work 

Everybody aged 50-69 and 
((WSTATOR=3, 5 and 
(YEARPR-YEARBIR)>49)  
or (WSTATOR=1, 2)) 

Everybody aged 50-69 and 
WSTATOR=3, 5 and YEARPR-
YEARBIR>49 

Everybody aged 50-69 and 
WSTATOR=1, 2 and C248/249 < 
98 

To increase retirement pension entitlements 
To provide sufficient household income 
No financial incentive 
Not applicable (not included in the filter)  
No answer  
Number of years spent working for pay or profit (during working life)  Everybody aged 50-69 and 

99 
Blank 

2 digits 
Not applicable (not included in the filter)  
No answer  

254/259 

Weighting factor for the LFS module 2006 (optional) 

0000-9999  Columns 254-257 contain whole numbers 
Columns 258-259 contain decimal places 

00-99 

((WSTATOR=3, 5 and 
(YEARPR-YEARBIR)>49)  
or (WSTATOR=1, 2)) 

Everybody aged 50-69 and 
((WSTATOR=3, 5 and 
(YEARPR-YEARBIR)>49)  
or (WSTATOR=1, 2)) 

47

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Annex 4 

Explanatory notes for LFS 2006 ad hoc module  

on transition from work into retirement 

Elaboration of the variables for the LFS module 2006 

Three  task  force  meetings  were  organised  in  order  to  build  a  finalised  draft  of  variables  for  the 
LFS module 2006. The task force was composed of nine countries: DK, DE, FR, IT, HU, NL, FI, 
SE, UK.  

Description of the variables for the LFS module 2006 

Reminder: The numbering of the variables of the labour force survey in Filters (C11/14, C24 and 
C67/70) refers to Commission Regulation (EC) No 1575/2000. 

Target population: 

Everybody aged 50-69 
- not at work (C24=3, 5) and who worked after 49 years old3 

- at work (C24=1, 2)  

******** 

C240 (REDUCHRS): Person reduced his/her working hours in a move to full retirement 

1- Yes, in a progressive retirement scheme/part-time pension 
2- Yes, but not in a progressive retirement scheme/part-time pension 
3- No, but plans to do so within the next 5 years 
4- No, and plans not to do so within the next 5 years/did not do so 
5- No, and does not know about plans for the next 5 years or plans are not relevant 
9- Not applicable (not included in the filter) 
Blank- No answer 

Filters 
Everybody aged 50-69 and ((C24=3, 5 and (C67/70-C11/14)>49) or (C24=1, 2)) 

Objective 
The aim is to know if persons did or plan to do a gradual move into retirement; if they did, if it 
was in a “progressive retirement scheme/part-time pension” or not. 

Instructions for the survey or for the coding 
-  This variable does not refer only to the current/past job (e.g. a person can plan to reduce the 

working hours by taking another job in the future and this should be coded). 

- 

“Progressive retirement scheme/part-time pension”: this measure concerns older employees in 
some countries. To avoid the exit from work, in case the employee wishes to decrease his/her 
working  time  before  retiring,  he/she  could  take  a  part-time  job  for  example.  It  could  be  a 
“classic” part-time or what is called a “progressive retirement scheme/part-time pension”. The 
latter  ensures  a  better  remuneration  than  the  “classic”  part-time  (e.g.  50%  work  paid  80%). 
This is part of measures to keep older employees in employment (incentives to stay at work). 
In other words, it corresponds to a reduction of the number of hours worked with a less than 
proportional reduction in salary (e.g. 50% work paid 80%). 

3 (C67/70-C11/14)>49 

48

 
 
                                                   
-  Reduction of hours worked in a move to full retirement: e.g. if the person worked 50% part-
time during the whole working life (or very early in the career), it should be coded “No” (the 
part-time was not taken in a move to full retirement, not to prepare the retirement). 

-  Particular case: If a person took a classic part-time AND after that, a progressive retirement in 

a move to full retirement, it should be coded 1. 

-  Code 4 includes also persons who plan not to do so within the next 5 years because they can 
not  (e.g.  no  possibility  in  the  work  supply).  It  also  includes  persons  who  did  not  reduce  the 
working hours in a move to full retirement and who have already stopped all work for pay or 
profit (with the intention not to return to the labour force). 

-  Code  5  can  also  apply  for  unemployed  persons,  for  persons  whose  job  will  stop  in  the 

following months or for persons with an uncertain job (“plans are not relevant”). 

C241/242 (PLAGESTP): Planned age for stopping all work for pay or profit 

50-93 2 digits 
94- No exact planned age, but it will be before 60 years old 
95- No exact planned age, but it will be between 60 and 64 years old 
96- No exact planned age, but it will be at 65 years old or after or plans to work as long as 
possible 
97- No exact planned age and does not know at all when it will be 
98- Has already stopped all work for pay or profit 
99- Not applicable (not included in the filter) 
Blank- No answer 

Filters 
Everybody aged 50-69 and ((C24=3, 5 and (C67/70-C11/14)>49) or (C24=1, 2)) 

Objective 
It is a prospective variable on the age planned for stopping all work for pay or profit. 

Instructions for the survey or for the coding 
-  Planned  age  for  stopping  all  work  for  pay  or  profit:  with  the  intention  not  to  return  to  the 
labour force. 

-  Code 98: person has stopped working for pay or profit with the intention not to return to the 
labour force. 

C243 (STATAFT): Main labour status just after leaving last job or business 

1- Unemployed 
2- In retirement or early retirement 
3- Long term sick or disabled 
4- Other 
9- Not applicable (not included in the filter) 
Blank- No answer 

Filters 
Everybody aged 50-69 and C24=3, 5 and (C67/70-C11/14)>49 

Objective 
This variable aims to get information on pathways between work and retirement by assessing the 
status just after the exit from last job, and on the differences of pathways between countries. 

Instructions for the survey or for the coding 
- 

“Just after leaving last job or business” means “just after the person last worked”.  

-  The variable is based on self-assessment.  

-  All the codes can apply for ex employees and ex self-employed. 

49

 
 
 
- 

“Unemployed”: may include government training, persons waiting to start job … 

C244 (REASRET): Main reason for retirement or early retirement 

1- Job lost 
2- Had reached compulsory retirement age 
3- Own health or disability 
4- Care responsibilities 
5- Problems related to job 
6- Favourable financial arrangements to leave 
7- Preference to stop working other than previous codes 
8- Other 
9- Not applicable (not included in the filter) 
Blank- No answer 

Filters 
C243 (STATAFT)=2 

Objective 
This  variable  aims  to  get  the  main  factor  that  made  person  exit  from  work  (financial  factor, 
personal  or  “legal”  factor  …)  using  categories  of  responses  more  adapted/oriented  to  older 
workers. 

Instructions for the survey or for the coding 
-  At the moment of the exit from last job (after the person last worked). 

-  Code 1: voluntary redundancy not included. 

-  Code  2:  compulsory  legal  maximum  retirement  age;  person  was  forced  to  exit  because  of 

his/her age (different from the standard retirement age or the minimum retirement age). 

-  Code 4: person had to care for children or dependant persons (e.g. lack of care facilities …). 

-  Code 5: working time patterns, tasks, health and safety, job stress, too demanding, skills not 

adequate or not valued, employer’s attitude … 

-  Code 6: financial terms to retire early, took voluntary redundancy, prime/compensation from 

employers, golden handshakes, other early retirement schemes … 

-  Code 7: includes preference to stop working for personal or family reasons, persons who did 
not  need  to  work  or  preferred  not  to  work…  This  also  includes  persons  who  reached  the 
minimum or standard retirement age (but not the maximum/compulsory), so who could have 
stayed longer at work but who preferred to stop working. 

- 

If it is really impossible for the interviewed person to choose a “main reason”, the first code 
that applies in the order of the list should be coded (the first codes refer rather to “obligations” 
and the last codes rather to “preferences”). 

C245 (FLEXWORK): More flexible working time arrangements would have contributed to 
person staying longer at work/would contribute to person staying longer at work 

1- Yes 
2- No 
9- Not applicable (not included in the filter) 
Blank- No answer 

Filters 
Everybody aged 50-69 and ((C24=3, 5 and (C67/70-C11/14)>49) or (C24=1, 2))  

Objective 
This variable deals with a working factor that could have contributed to person staying longer at 
work/could  contribute  to  person  staying  longer  at  work.  It  aims  to  know  if  improvement  of  this 
working factor could have made/could make person postpone the exit from work. 

50

 
 
Instructions for the survey or for the coding 
- 

“Yes” and “to some extent” are in the same category of response: this means that this aspect 
would have contributed to person staying at work or would contribute to person staying longer 
at  work.  In  other  words,  it  may  not  be  the  only  factor  but  if  it  was/is  one  of  them,  code  1 
should be used. 

- 

“More flexible working time arrangements” includes the possibility of reducing working time, 
teleworking, changing working hours … 

C246  (OPPSKILL):  More  opportunities  to  update  skills  would  have  contributed  to  person 
staying longer at work/would contribute to person staying longer at work 

1- Yes 
2- No 
9- Not applicable (not included in the filter) 
Blank- No answer 

Filters 
Everybody aged 50-69 and ((C24=3, 5 and (C67/70-C11/14)>49) or (C24=1, 2))  

Objective 

This variable deals with a working factor that could have contributed to person staying longer at 
work/could  contribute  to  person  staying  longer  at  work.  It  aims  to  know  if  improvement  of  this 
working factor could have made/could make person postpone the exit from work. 

Instructions for the survey or for the coding 
- 

“Yes” and “to some extent” are in the same category of response: this means that this aspect 
would have contributed to person staying at work or would contribute to person staying longer 
at  work.  In  other  words,  it  may  not  be  the  only  factor  but  if  it  was/is  one  of  them,  code  1 
should be used. 

C247  (HLTHSAF):  Better  health  and/or  safety  at  workplace  would  have  contributed  to 
person staying longer at work/would contribute to person staying longer at work 

1- Yes 
2- No 
9- Not applicable (not included in the filter) 
Blank- No answer 

Filters 
Everybody aged 50-69 and ((C24=3, 5 and (C67/70-C11/14)>49) or (C24=1, 2))  

Objective 
This variable deals with a working factor that could have contributed to person staying longer at 
work/could  contribute  to  person  staying  longer  at  work.  It  aims  to  know  if  improvement  of  this 
working factor could have made/could make person postpone the exit from work. 

Instructions for the survey or for the coding 
- 

“Yes” and “to some extent” are in the same category of response: this means that this aspect 
would have contributed to person staying at work or would contribute to person staying longer 
at  work.  In  other  words,  it  may  not  be  the  only  factor  but  if  it  was/is  one  of  them,  code  1 
should be used. 

C248/249  (AGEPENS):  Age  at  which  person  started  to  receive  an  individual  retirement 
pension 

2 digits 
97- Does not receive an individual retirement pension even though is entitled to 

51

 
 
 
 
 
98- Is not/not yet entitled to an individual retirement pension 
99- Not applicable (not included in the filter) 
Blank- No answer 

Filters 
Everybody aged 50-69 and ((C24=3, 5 and (C67/70-C11/14)>49) or (C24=1, 2)) 

Objective 
This variable aims to know if person receives a retirement pension; if no, if she/he is entitled to or 
not; if yes, when she/he started to receive it (age). This age could be compared to the age of exit 
from work and could give information on financial aspects. 

Instructions for the survey or for the coding 
- 

“Individual” retirement pension: only individual/“direct” pensions are included. Pensions from 
derived rights are excluded; survivor’s pensions/widow’s pensions are therefore excluded. 

- 

“Retirement  pensions”:  Are  included  own  full-time  retirement  pensions,  own  part-time 
pensions/progressive retirement schemes and more generally all “old age pensions” according 
to the ESSPROS definition. Therefore are included as “retirement pensions” (ESSPROS, in the 
classification of benefits in the Old Age Function): 

(cid:131)  Old  age  pension:  periodic  payments  intended  to  i)  maintain  the  income  of  the 
beneficiary after retirement from gainful employment at the standard age or ii) support 
the income of old persons. 

(cid:131)  Anticipated  old  age  pension:  periodic  payments  intended  to  maintain  the  income  of 
beneficiaries who retire before the standard age as defined in the relevant scheme or in 
the  scheme  of  reference.  This  may  occur  with  or  without  a  reduction  of  the  normal 
pension.  

(cid:131)  Partial retirement pension: periodic payment of a portion of the full retirement pension 
to  older  workers  who  continue  to  work  but  reduce  their  working  hours  or  whose 
income from a professional activity is below a defined ceiling. This may occur before 
or  after  standard  retirement  age.  The  partial  pension  is  converted  into  a  full  pension 
when the beneficiary retires completely or when he or she ceases to earn professional 
income above the defined level. 

-  Are excluded from the definition of “retirement pensions” (ESSPROS, in the classification of 
benefits  in  the  Disability  Function,  in  the  classification  of  benefits  in  the  Unemployment 
Function): 

(cid:131)  Disability  pension:  periodic  payment  intended  to  maintain  or  support  the  income  of 
someone  below  standard  retirement  age  as  established  in  the  reference  scheme  who 
suffers  from  a  disability  which  impairs  his  or  her  ability  to  work  or  earn  beyond  a 
minimum level laid down by legislation. 

(cid:131)  Early retirement in case of reduced ability to work: periodic payments to older workers 
who  retire  before  reaching  standard  retirement  age  as  established  in  the  reference 
scheme as a result of reduced ability to work. These payments normally cease when the 
beneficiary becomes entitled to an old age pension.  

(cid:131)  Early  retirement  for  labour  market  reasons:  periodic  payments  to  older  workers  who 
retire before reaching standard retirement age due to unemployment or to job reduction 
caused by economic measures such as the restructuring of an industrial sector or of a 
business  enterprise.  These  payments  normally  cease  when  the  beneficiary  becomes 
entitled to an old age pension. 

From ESSPROS- Guidelines: ** It is not always possible to establish a single standard retirement 
age for each country. The age at which old age benefits become payable is fixed by legislation or 

52

 
 
 
by contract, and may vary both among countries and within Member States, according to sector of 
activity,  occupation,  gender,  and  so  on.  For  example,  in  many  countries  the  standard  retirement 
age for women is lower than that for men, even if it is progressively being brought into line with 
the  latter.  The  standard  retirement  age  for  the  self-employed  is  sometimes  higher  than  that  for 
employees, or, vice versa, civil servants can, in some countries, retire earlier.  
Anticipated old age pensions must be identified with reference to the standard retirement age as 
defined in the relevant scheme, or in the scheme of reference. The following cases fall under the 
item Anticipated old age pension: 

-  pensions paid to people who work in conditions which are regarded as particularly arduous 

or unhealthy; 

-  seniority  pensions,  paid  on  condition  that  a  prescribed  number  of  contribution  units  has 
been  paid  or  that  a  defined  period  of  insurance  has  been  completed.  Long  service  rather 
than old age gives entitlement to the benefit; 

-  reduced pensions, paid before standard retirement age on condition that a reduction in the 

value of the pension is accepted. 

It is also possible to postpone retirement beyond legal retirement age, normally with an increase in 
the value of the benefit. The additional amounts paid in case of late retirement must be included 
under the item old age pension. 

The old age function does not record all benefits granted in the transition from work to retirement. 
Some  of  these  may  result  from  social  protection  provisions  other  than  those  linked  to  old  age. 
Early  retirement  benefits,  in  particular,  may  be  paid  to  older  unemployed  or  disabled  workers. 
These  benefits  are  reported  in  the  Unemployment  or  Disability  functions.  These  rules  underline 
again  that  the  allocation  of  benefits  to  functions  needs  very  careful  examination  of  the  exact 
situations which give rise to payments. ** 

-  Age at which person started to receive it for the first time; this means that if person receives 
several retirement pensions, among those she/he receives, the age at the first reception should 
be taken into account. 

-  Code  97:  e.g.  includes  persons  who would  be  allowed  to receive  a  retirement  pension at  the 
moment of the survey but do not receive one because they want to wait in order to increase the 
remuneration of the future retirement pension. 

-  Code 98 includes e.g. 

(cid:131)  persons who are not yet entitled to receive a retirement pension because of the age or 
of  another  factor,  but  who  have  developed/are  developing  a  retirement  pension  they 
will receive in the future. 

(cid:131)  persons  who  haven’t  developed  in  the  past  and  are  not  developing  any  retirement 

pension entitlements. 

C250 (OTHBENF): Person receives an individual pension or individual benefits, other than 
a retirement pension and unemployment benefits, such as a disability pension, a sick pension 
or an early retirement scheme allowance 

1- Yes, a disability pension or a sick pension 
2- Yes, an early retirement scheme allowance 
3- Yes, another individual benefit not elsewhere classified 
4- Yes, combination of codes 1, 2 or 3 
5- No 
9- Not applicable (not included in the filter) 
Blank- No answer 

Filters 
Everybody aged 50-69 and C24=3, 5 and (C67/70-C11/14)>49 

53

 
 
 
Objective 
This  variable  aims  to  know  if  the  person  receives  some  kinds  of  pensions/benefits  allowing 
her/him not to work. This will give information on financial aspects. 

Instructions for the survey or for the coding 

-  All  enumerated  individual  pensions/benefits  are  included  (in  general,  these  pensions  are 
periodic  and  paid  in  cash).  Retirement  pensions  are  excluded  (see  definition  for  C248/249 
AGEPENS). 

-  Sick pensions can be financed by the social security. 

-  Code  3:  another  individual  benefit  not  coded  1  and  not  coded  2,  other  than  a  retirement 
pension  or  unemployment  benefits.  E.g.  benefits  from  social  assistance  (ESSPROS,  social 
benefits in the function social exclusion not elsewhere classified). Are excluded benefits in the 
survivor’s  function  (e.g.  survivor’s  pensions)  and  of  course  benefits  in  the  family/children 
function and in the housing function. 

- 

It is important that the countries give to EUROSTAT the list of the kinds of pensions/benefits 
they include according to their national specificities. 

C251 (FININCTV): Main financial incentive to stay at work 
1- To increase retirement pension entitlements 
2- To provide sufficient household income 
3- No financial incentive 
9- Not applicable (not included in the filter) 
Blank- No answer 

Filters 
Everybody aged 50-69 and C24=1, 2 and C248/249(AGEPENS)<98 

Objective 
The aim is to know the main financial incentive to stay at work. 

Instructions for the survey or for the coding 

-  Code 1 includes “to increase future retirement pension”. 

-  Code 2 includes “to meet the current financial needs of the household”. 

- 

If it is really impossible for the interviewed person to choose between code 1 and code 2, then 
code 1 should be coded (order of the list). 

C252/253 (YEARSPNT): Number of years spent working for pay or profit (during working 
life) 

2 digits 
99- Not applicable (not included in the filter) 
Blank- No answer 

Filters 
Everybody aged 50-69 and ((C24=3, 5 and (C67/70-C11/14)>49) or (C24=1, 2)) 

Objective 
The aim is to get an approximate measure of the duration of the working career. 

Instructions for the survey or for the coding 

-  This variable is identical to a variable in the EU-SILC. 

- 

It is implicit that an approximate measure is accepted. 

54

 
 
 
-  Career  breaks  are  excluded;  parental  leave  is  also  excluded.  Maternity/paternity  leave  and 

temporary disability are not considered as career breaks (see below). 

-  When  a  person  had  a  job,  but  was  temporarily  absent  because  of  maternity  leave,  injury  or 
temporary disability, slack work for technical or economical reasons … the related period is to 
be included. 

-  Should be recorded the number of years, since starting the first significant job, the person has 

spent working for pay or profit, whether as an employee or self-employed. 

-  First significant job: vacation jobs taken by students, from which they return to studies or to 
other non-work situations are disregarded, as are also other casual jobs undertaken from time 
to time. Part-time jobs the person may have engaged in while still in school or university are 
not included. This is partly a subjective definition (self-assessment); on the other hand, the aim 
is to get an approximate measure of the duration of the working career. 

55

 
 
Annex 5 

Draft proposal for a questionnaire for the LFS 2006 ad hoc module 

on transition from work into retirement 

Given the fact that in the LFS face to face as well as telephone interviewing is applied, questions 
should be applicable in both situations so that, as far as possible, the two modes of interviewing 
will deliver comparable data. The proposal is therefore to break down the variables into questions 
gradually. The proposal should be adapted in case of proxy. 
This  draft  proposal  for  a  questionnaire  and  codifications  includes  comments  from  the  task  force 
LFS  module  2006.  Nevertheless,  this  draft  could  still  be  improved  by  the  comments  of  the 
countries. The countries are therefore invited to share their experience of developing the questions 
for the LFS module 2006 and to send their comments to Eurostat. 
Notes:  

- The questions do not follow the order of the variables. 

-  There  is  no  obligation  to  implement  precisely  the  proposed  questionnaire  but  when  the 

structure of the specific national LFS survey permits it, it could be followed.  

- For paper questionnaires, in order to improve the readability, the following proposal could 
be split in 2 sub-questionnaires depending on the labour situation of the persons: one for 
the persons at work (24=1, 2) and one for persons not at work but who have worked after 
49 years old (C24=3, 5 and (C67/70-C11/14) >49)). 

- Note that C67/70 will be changed into C82/85 in the new regulation. Nevertheless, C67/70 

is used here since this reference had to be used in the regulation. 

F1 

FILTER 1 

If person aged 50-69 and 24=1, 2 (cid:206) Q1 
If person aged 50-69 and (C24=3, 5 and (C67/70-C11/14) >494) (cid:206) Q1 
Else (cid:206) END 

C248/249 (AGEPENS) 

Q1  Do you receive an individual retirement pension? 
retirement  pensions  own 
individual 

full-time  pensions  but  also  own  part-time 
(Are  defined  as 
pensions/progressive 
retirement  schemes.  Are  excluded  partner’s  pensions,  survivor’s  pensions, 
unemployment  benefits  and  other  early  retirement  scheme  allowances  -excluding  also  disability  and  sick 
pensions before the standard age of retirement). 
1. Yes ....................................................................................................................................  
2. No  .....................................................................................................................................  

Blank- No answer  .................................................................................................................  

Q2  At which age did you receive your first individual retirement pension? 

Q3  You  do  not  receive  an  individual  retirement  pension.  But  are  you  entitled  to  receive  an 

individual retirement pension (even partial)? 
1. Yes, you would be allowed to receive an individual retirement pension if you wanted to  
2. No, you would not or not yet be allowed to receive an individual retirement pension 
Blank- No answer  .................................................................................................................  

C252/253 (YEARSPNT) 

Q4 

In total, how many years have you spent working for pay or profit in your working life? 

1 
2  (cid:206) Q3 
  (cid:206) Q4 

  (cid:206) Q4 

1 
2 

4 =has worked after 49 years old (reference CR N°1575/2000). This condition is not repeated in the other filters but is of course implicit (F1 = first 
filter; if C24=3, 5 and if this condition is not fulfilled, it is the end of the interview). 

56

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                                   
(approximate expected) 

F2 

FILTER 2 

If C24=1, 2 (cid:206) Q5 
If C24=3, 5 (cid:206) FQ1 

C241/242 (PLAGESTP) 

Q5  At which age do you plan to stop all work for pay or profit?  ........................................  

50-93 2 digits 
94 Does not know exactly  
95 Plans to work as long as possible 

F3 

FILTER 3 

If Q5=94 (cid:206) Q5a 
Else (cid:206) F4 

Q5a  You do not know yet precisely at which age you will stop. But approximately, do you think 

you will stop all work for pay or profit … 
1. Before 60 years old  ..........................................................................................................  

2. Between 60 and 64 years old ...........................................................................................  

3. At 65 years old or after  .....................................................................................................  

4. Does not know at all when it will be ..................................................................................  

Blank- No answer  .................................................................................................................  

FQ1  Person has already stopped all work for pay or profit (with the intention not to return  

to the labour force) 
1. Yes ....................................................................................................................................  

2. No  .....................................................................................................................................  
Blank- No answer  .................................................................................................................  

Q6  At which age do you plan to stop all work for pay or profit?  ........................................  

50-93 2 digits 
94- No exact planned age, but it will be before 60 years old 
95- No exact planned age, but it will be between 60 and 64 years old 
96- No exact planned age, but it will be at 65 years old or after or plans to work as long as possible 
97- No exact planned age and does not know at all when it will be 
Blank- No answer 

F4 

FILTER 4 

If C24=1, 2 and (Q2 not equal to Blank or Q3=1) (cid:206) Q7 
Else (cid:206) Q10 

C251(FININCTV) 
Q7 

Do you have a financial incentive that makes you stay at work? 
1. Yes  .................................................................................................................................... 

2. No ...................................................................................................................................... 

Blank- No answer .................................................................................................................. 

Q7a 

Is  it  mainly  to  provide  sufficient  household  income  at  present  or  to  increase  your 
retirement pension entitlements? 
1. To provide sufficient household income ............................................................................ 

2. To increase your retirement pension entitlements  ........................................................... 

Blank- No answer .................................................................................................................. 

1 
2 
3 
4 

  (cid:206) F4 

1  (cid:206) Q8 
2 
  (cid:206) Q8 

  (cid:206) Q8 

1 
2  (cid:206) Q10 
  (cid:206) Q10 

1
2

  (cid:206) Q10 

C243 (STATAFT) 

Q8  Let’s talk about your last job or business. 

What was your situation just after you left your last job or business? 
1. Unemployed  .....................................................................................................................  

1 

  (cid:206) F5 

57

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2. In retirement or early retirement  .......................................................................................  
3. Long term sick or disabled  ...............................................................................................  

4. Other .................................................................................................................................  

Blank- No answer  .................................................................................................................  

C244 (REASRET) 

Q9  What was the main reason for leaving for retirement or early retirement? -list 

1. Job lost  .............................................................................................................................  

2. Had reached compulsory retirement age  .........................................................................  

3. Own health or disability  ....................................................................................................  

4. Care responsibilities  .........................................................................................................  

5. Problems related to job  ....................................................................................................  

6. Favourable financial arrangements to leave  ....................................................................  

5
7. Preference to stop working other than previous codes
  ..................................................  
8. Other .................................................................................................................................  

Blank– No answer   

C240 (REDUCHRS) 
Q10  Have you reduced your working hours in a move to full retirement? 

1. Yes ....................................................................................................................................  

2. No (including not yet).........................................................................................................  

Blank- No answer  .................................................................................................................  

Q10a  Do  you  plan  to  reduce  your  working  hours  in  a  move  to  full  retirement  within  the  next  5 

years? 
1. Yes, you plan to do so within the next 5 years .................................................................  

2. No, you plan not to do so within the next 5 years  ............................................................  

3. You do not know about plans for the next 5 years or plans are not relevant 
Blank- No answer  .................................................................................................................  

……... 

6

F5 

FILTER 5 

If FQ1=1 (cid:206) Q11 
If FQ1=2, Blank (cid:206) Q11a 

Q11  Did you reduce your working hours in a move to full retirement? 

1. Yes ....................................................................................................................................  

2. No  .....................................................................................................................................  

Blank- No answer  .................................................................................................................  

Q11a  Did you reduce your working hours in a move to full retirement? 

1. Yes  .................................................................................................................................... 

2. No, but you plan to do so within the next 5 years ............................................................. 

3. No, and you plan not to do so within the next 5 years ...................................................... 

4. No, and you do not know about plans for the next 5 years or plans are not relevant 
Blank- No answer .................................................................................................................. 

7

  (cid:206) F5 
  (cid:206) F5 
  (cid:206) F5 

2 
3 
4 

1 
2 
3 
4 
5 
6 
7 
8 

 (cid:206) F5 

  (cid:206) Q12 

  (cid:206) Q13 

1 
2 

1 
2 
3 

  (cid:206) Q13 

1  (cid:206) Q12 
2  (cid:206) Q14 
  (cid:206) Q14 

1 
2 
3 
4 

  (cid:206) Q12
  (cid:206) Q14
  (cid:206) Q14
  (cid:206) Q14
  (cid:206) Q14

Q12  You  reduced  your  working  hours  in  a  move  to  full  retirement.  Did  you  take  a  progressive 

retirement scheme/part-time pension? 
(A “progressive retirement scheme/part-time pension” is a way to reduce the working hours with a less than 
proportional reduction in the salary, e.g. 50% work paid 80%). 
1. Yes  ...................................................................................................................................  
2. No  .....................................................................................................................................  

1 
2 

5 Includes also persons who reached the minimum or standard retirement age (but not the maximum/compulsory), so who could have stayed longer at work but who preferred to stop 
working. 
6 “Plans are not relevant”: can apply for persons whose job will stop in the following months, persons with an uncertain job… 
7 “Plans are not relevant”: can apply for unemployed persons. 

58

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                                   
Blank- No answer  .................................................................................................................  

F6 

FILTER 6 

If C24=1, 2 (cid:206) Q13 
If C24=3, 5 (cid:206) Q14 

C245 (FLEXWORK) / 246 (OPPSKILL) / 247 (HLTHSAF) 

Q13  Would the followings contribute to make you stay longer at work?  

Q14  Would the followings have contributed to make you stay longer at work?  

Q13a 

More flexible working time arrangements? 
1. Yes (including to some extent) .........................................................................................  

2. No  .....................................................................................................................................  
Blank- No answer  .................................................................................................................  

Q13b  More opportunities to update skills? 

1. Yes (including to some extent)  .........................................................................................  
2. No  .....................................................................................................................................  
Blank- No answer  .................................................................................................................  

Q13c  Better health and/or safety at workplace? 

1. Yes (including to some extent)  .........................................................................................  
2. No  .....................................................................................................................................  
Blank- No answer  .................................................................................................................  

F7 

FILTER 7 

If C24=3, 5 (cid:206) Q15 
Else (cid:206) END 

C250 (OTHBENF) 
Q15  Do you receive an individual pension or individual benefits, other than a retirement pension 
and  unemployment  benefits,  such  as  a  disability  pension,  a  sick  pension  or  an  early 
retirement scheme allowance? –national list- 
1. Yes, a disability pension or a sick pension  ......................................................................  
2. Yes, an early retirement scheme allowance  ....................................................................  

8

  .......................................................................................  
3. Yes, another individual benefit
4. Yes, combination of codes 1, 2 or 3 .................................................................................  
5. No .....................................................................................................................................  
Blank- No answer .................................................................................................................  

(cid:206) Q13a 

(cid:206) Q13a 

1 
2 

1 
2 

1 
2 

1 
2 
3 
4 
5 

(cid:206) END 

8 National list; see description of the variable to know what should be included or excluded. 

59

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                                   
Annex 6 

Codification in order to obtain the variables  

for the LFS module 2006 

C240 (REDUCHRS) 
Code 

C241/242 (PLAGESTP) 
Code 

Codification of the questions 
Q12=1 
Q12=2 
Q10a=1 or Q11a=2 
Q10a=2 or Q11a=3 or Q11=2 
Q10a=3 or Q11a=4 
(Person aged less than 50 or more than 69) OR (C24=4, Blank) OR (person aged 50-69 and C24=3, 5 and 
has not worked after 49 years old
Other case (no answer / does not know) 

)  

9

Codification of the questions 
Q5=50 to 93 or Q6=50 to 93 
Q5a=1 or Q6=94 
Q5a=2 or Q6=95 
Q5a=3 or Q6=96 or Q5=95 
Q5a=4 or Q6=97 
FQ1=1 
(Person aged less than 50 or more than 69) OR (C24=4, Blank) OR (person aged 50-69 and C24=3, 5 and 
has not worked after 49 years old) 
Other case (no answer / does not know) 

C243 (STATAFT) 
Code 

C244 (REASRET) 
Code 

Codification of the questions 
Q8=1 
Q8=2 
Q8=3 
Q8=4 
(Person aged less than 50 or more than 69) OR (C24=1, 2, 4, Blank) OR (person aged 50-69 and C24=3, 5 
and has not worked after 49 years old) 
Other case (no answer / does not know) 

Codification of the questions 
Q9=1 
Q9=2 
Q9=3 
Q9=4 
Q9=5 
Q9=6 
Q9=7 
Q9=8 
(Person aged less than 50 or more than 69) OR (C24=1, 2, 4, Blank) OR (person aged 50-69 and C24=3, 5 
and has not worked after 49 years old) OR (person aged 50-69 and C24=3, 5 and has worked after 49 years 
old and C243(STATAFT)=1, 3, 4, Blank) 
Other case (no answer / does not know) 

C245 (FLEXWORK) 
Code 

Codification of the questions 
Q13a=1 
Q13a=2 
(Person aged less than 50 or more than 69) OR (C24=4, Blank) OR (person aged 50-69 and C24=3, 5 and 
has not worked after 49 years old) 
Other case (no answer / does not know) 

1 
2 
3 
4 
5 
9 

blank 

50-93 
94 
95 
96 
97 
98 
99 

blank 

1 
2 
3 
4 
9 

blank 

1 
2 
3 
4 
5 
6 
7 
8 
9 

blank 

1 
2 
9 

blank 

C246 (OPPSKILL) 
Code 

Codification of the questions 

9 Has worked after 49 years old= (C67/70-C11/14) >49. 

60

 
 
 
 
 
 
                                                   
1 
2 
9 

blank 

Q13b=1 
Q13b=2 
(Person aged less than 50 or more than 69) OR (C24=4, Blank) OR (person aged 50-69 and C24=3, 5 and 
has not worked after 49 years old) 
Other case (no answer / does not know) 

C247 (HLTHSAF) 
Code 

C248/249 ((AGEPENS) 
Code 

1 
2 
9 

blank 

2 digits 
97 
98 
99 

blank 

1 
2 
3 
4 
5 
9 

blank 

1 
2 
3 
9 

blank 

C250 (OTHBENF) 
Code 

C251 (FININCTV) 
Code 

Codification of the questions 
Q13c=1 
Q13c=2 
(Person aged less than 50 or more than 69) OR (C24=4, Blank) OR (person aged 50-69 and C24=3, 5 and 
has not worked after 49 years old) 
Other case (no answer / does not know) 

Codification of the questions 
Q2 
Q3=1 
Q3=2 
(Person aged less than 50 or more than 69) OR (C24=4, Blank) OR (person aged 50-69 and C24=3, 5 and 
has not worked after 49 years old) 
Other case (no answer / does not know) 

Codification of the questions 
Q15=1 
Q15=2 
Q15=3 
Q15=4 
Q15=5 
(Person aged less than 50 or more than 69) OR (C24=1, 2, 4, Blank) OR (person aged 50-69 and C24=3, 5 
and has not worked after 49 years old) 
Other case (no answer / does not know) 

Codification of the questions 
Q7a=2 
Q7a=1 
Q7=2 
(Person aged less than 50 or more than 69) OR (C24=3, 4, 5, Blank) OR (person aged 50-69 and C24=1, 2 
and C248/249=98, Blank) 
Other case (no answer / does not know) 

C252/253 (YEARSPNT) 
Code 

2 digits 
99 

blank 

Codification of the questions 
Q4 
(Person aged less than 50 or more than 69) OR (C24=4, Blank) OR (person aged 50-69 and C24=3, 5 and 
has not worked after 49 years old) 
Other case (no answer / does not know) 

NOTE: The weighting factors for the module (C254/259) should be filled whether the coefficients 
are specific to the module or equivalent to the core coefficients. 

61

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
European Commission

Transition from work into retirement

Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities

200(cid:56)(cid:32)(cid:208)(cid:32)(cid:54) (cid:112)(cid:112)(cid:46)(cid:32)(cid:208)(cid:32)(cid:50)(cid:49) x 29.7 cm

(cid:49)(cid:32)

ISBN 978-92-79-078
ISSN 1977-0375

50 7
-