A new community-level survey and regional analysis underline the growing importance of Fiji’s Social Pension Scheme as the country and the wider Pacific prepare for an ageing population. The scheme now supports more than 58,000 older people, and researchers estimate poverty among older persons would be about 40 percent higher if the pension did not exist. A recent survey of 1,365 pension recipients found 72 percent are the sole income earners in their households, highlighting the pension’s role as a primary household safety net.
“The pension enables recipients to transition into more private, secure and improved living arrangements, improve sanitation and improve access to more reliable water sources,” said Eseta Nadakuitavuki, Fiji’s former Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Protection. She noted the allowance also primarily supports essential household needs, health and social responsibilities, showing how benefits reach beyond individual recipients to their families.
The findings arrive as policy makers confront demographic shifts across the Pacific. The UN Asia-Pacific Report on Population Ageing 2022 projects the proportion of people aged 60 and over in the region will rise from 18 percent in 2022 to 24 percent by 2050. “Ageing has implications for growth, public finances and living standards,” said Philip O’Keefe, Professor of Practice at the University of New South Wales’ Centre for Population Ageing Research. He warned that informal support networks are under strain as fertility falls, migration increases and social norms change.
The region’s mix of pension systems leaves many older people at risk. Contributory pensions — built on employer and employee contributions — reach only a small fraction of workers in several Pacific countries, according to the analysis: Papua New Guinea 3 percent, Kiribati 15 percent, Solomon Islands 16 percent and Samoa 25 percent. High levels of informal employment, especially among women, mean many never enter contributory schemes or retire with insufficient savings; lump-sum withdrawals at retirement commonly exhaust resources well before advanced old age.
That mismatch has led several Pacific governments to prioritise tax-funded social pensions. Development Pathways’ research cited in the analysis finds countries including Kiribati, the Cook Islands and Nauru provide social pensions with benefit levels exceeding the benchmark of 15 percent of GDP per capita. Those investments have pushed pension-system coverage to more than 90 percent of people aged 65 and over in some jurisdictions, demonstrating how well-targeted public transfers can rapidly expand protection for older adults.
Analysts say the evidence supports continued and possibly expanded social pension spending across the Pacific to close coverage gaps and reduce old-age poverty, particularly among women who are more likely to work informally and have interrupted employment histories. The new data from Fiji — showing how the pension stabilises households and reduces poverty — strengthens arguments under way in domestic debates about adjusting pension levels; advocates and some civil society voices have recently urged the government to consider a boost to better shield seniors from rising costs.
Policymakers face choices about mixing contributory schemes with universal or categorical social pensions to ensure predictable income in later life. As the population ages and informal support networks weaken, the latest survey and regional statistics make clear that social pensions are no longer a fringe safety net but a central tool for preserving dignity and financial security for older Pacific Islanders.
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