Belize Pension System

The primary goal of a pension system should be to provide adequate, affordable, sustainable, and robust retirement income. Belize, like many other countries in the Caribbean, faces the challenge to both expand the pension coverage and guarantee its financial sustainability. In the last few years, the issue of social security reform has been a rising concern in Belize, as well as throughout the region. In this context, Belize has undertaken actuarial forecasts to examine the prospective state of its social security scheme. This document describes the Belizean pension system in terms of three critical issues. The most important issue is financial sustainability and its fiscal implications. The second is coverage, since Belize has one of the lowest coverage rates of workers among English-speaking Caribbean countries. The third issue is the institutional framework of the pension system. In addition, the document offers the main options for reforming a typical publicly managed, unfunded defined-benefit scheme such as the Belize pension system.