Retirement age and beyond: Pension reforms in Turkey and welfare retrenchment

In response to concerns that early retirement policies had a detrimental effect on the actuarial balance and that resources were diverted from the state budget to pay for social security organizations' deficits, Turkey's pension system was restructured during the 1990s and 2000s. With 1999 reforms, retirement age conditionality was implemented in addition to the contribution days and premium payments conditions. This change was applied retroactively, and thus has adversely affected people who started working before the law was implemented. Millions of people ended up having to wait until a much later age to gain retirement rights, although they have satisfied the previous conditions. In the 2000s, several pension reforms were enacted regarding pension calculations that led to significant decreases in pensions, resulting in further losses for this group of people. In time, people affected by the 1999 reform organized around a common cause, which came to be popularly known as 'People Who Encountered the Age Obstacle in Retirement' (Emeklilikte Yaşa Takılanlar - EYT) movement. This thesis critically assesses to what extent the 1999 and subsequent pension reforms in the 2000s and their outcomes that resulted in the EYT phenomenon in Turkey can be examined under the welfare retrenchment discussion by employing qualitative methods. In addition to the comprehensive desk research for capturing the historical development of pension systems in Turkey, a semi-structured, in-depth interview was conducted with 13 EYT individuals in the study's second phase.