Attending the Social Policy Association annual conference – reports from early career researchers from the Pensions Policy Group
Keywords: pensions policy, annual conference, early career, welfare state, inequality, solidarity.
Image by Vicki Hamilton from Pixabay
—
At the 2025 annual conference, the SPA’s Pensions Policy Group supported two early career scholars with bursaries to attend the conference and present their work in two linked symposia organised by the group.
We asked our bursary recipients, Kun Lee and Emefa Awuku, to write a report to share their experience of the symposia and the conference. Their reflections are really informative, not just in terms of the academic content but also on the importance of supporting early career researchers to be involved in our groups.
Read on to learn more about their experiences!
—
Social Policy Association Conference Report: Reflections and Learnings from Pension Symposia
Kun Lee, Research AssociateLIS Cross-National Data Center and Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research
Website: https://kunlee0910.github.io/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kun-lee-26b39413a/
The 2025 joint conference of the Social Policy Association (SPA) and the East Asian Social Policy (EASP) Research Network kicked off on Wednesday, July 2, at the beautiful campus of the University of York, with an insightful plenary lecture by Sophia Seung Yoon Lee from Chung-Ang University. Her keynote addressed one of the most pressing and timely questions for social policy researchers today: why social solidarity is in crisis and how to restore it. Sophia argued for universal social protection and “bringing the class back in” to social policy debates, using recent developments in South Korea as a case study. Her key diagnosis was that the welfare state’s failure to adapt to the changing nature of work and to protect the precarious working class – conceptualised as “welfare state drift” – has been a key mechanism that ended up in fractured solidarities over the past two decades. The talk sparked active responses and rich discussions among the audience.
These themes were continued in two pension symposia organised by the SPA Pensions Policy Group, where I also presented my ongoing work. These symposia took place during the morning sessions of the second day. The first, titled “Reforms and unequal outcomes”, focused on the socio-economic outcomes of pension systems, while the second, “Perceptions, attitudes and participation”, addressed the political dynamics of pension policy. Seven papers were presented, covering a wide rage of pension policies worldwide and featuring various analytical and methodological approaches.
Several key themes emerged from the first symposium. Matt Padley from Loughborough University raised the growing challenge of pension adequacy in the UK, underscoring that the current combination of state pension and workplace pensions under auto-enrolment is failing to meet minimum living standards for older people. These findings were closely connected to my own paper, which examined the institutional structure of public pensions and its relationship to wealth inequality in old age, based on an investigation of 18 pension systems across high-income countries. I showed that wealth inequality tends to be amplified in UK-style pension systems where the public scheme only covers a minimum, flat-rate pension and the remainder is left to private-sector pension funds.
Other notable contributions came from Ellie Suh and Debora Price, who critically examined the conceptual ambiguity of the ‘gender pension gap’ in the UK – a term that often leads to confusing and inconsistent statistics. Finally, Traute Meyer’s historical comparison of pension systems in Europe and East Asia emphasised the importance of considering the unique context of East Asian advanced economies where increases in female labour supply led to expansions in public pension benefits.
The second symposium shifted focus to public perceptions of pension policy across different country contexts. Chung-Yang Yeh’s experimental study on attitudes toward pension reforms in Taiwan offered robust causal evidence that transparent provision of information can raise public support for pension reforms, although persistent generational differences remain a challenge. Similarly, Dirk Hofäcker’s research highlighted knowledge gaps with regard to Germany’s multi-pillar pension system and revealed inequalities between generations and socio-economic groups. Another important case study presented by Emefa Awuku demonstrated how administrative burdens faced by informal workers in Ghana can undermine participation in social pensions, drawing on in-depth qualitative interviews and thematic analysis.
The series of symposia concluded with a panel discussion among the seven presenters and the audience, focusing on key questions in contemporary pension policy: What would be effective policy strategies to address the gender pension gap and women’s old-age poverty? Can greater information transparency change public scepticism and resistance to pension reforms? The symposia, and the conference as a whole, provided a rich forum for exchanging ideas on some of the most pressing challenges in social policy. Engaging with scholars from diverse disciplinary and cultural backgrounds also offered valuable insights into how pension research can better intersect with wider debates on intergenerational equity, gender inequality and the recalibration of welfare states.
Attending the joint annual conference of the SPA and EASP this year was both intellectually stimulating and professionally rewarding. Thanks to the generous Early Career Researcher (ECR) bursary provided by the Pensions Policy Group, I was able to meet colleagues for the first time in person since I joined the group as a core member and to engage with the wider community of social policy researchers without financial barriers. Such support is crucial for ECRs like myself, as we often lack sufficient research funding but are in most need to expand our academic networks for future career development.
—
The 2025 Joint Annual Conference of the SPA and EASP: Conference Report
Emefa Tonorgbevi Awuku
PhD Candidate, Department of Sociology and Social Policy (https://www.linkedin.com/in/dsocsp-lingnan/)
Lingnan University, Hong Kong SAR
Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/emefa-731011135
X: @EmefaAwuku
Introduction
It was a great delight and honour to participate in the Joint Annual Conference of the Social Policy Association (SPA), UK and the East Asian Social Policy Research Network (EASP) at the University of York from July 2nd to 4th, 2025, which offered the platform for significant insights into current social policy issues. The conference’s theme “Go your own way? Social Policy in an era of fracturing solidarities” was notably prescient, as the sessions vividly demonstrated how contemporary global challenges are driving both divergence and convergence in social policy responses. Through engaging presentations on work relations, housing, and family policy and many other areas, one could easily gain a deeper understanding of how fractured solidarities manifest across diverse domains.
The two-part symposium on pension policy, arranged by the SPA’s Pension Policy Group, seamlessly corresponded with the conference’s central theme. The pension symposium, organized on July 3rd, featured two sessions: “Reforms and Unequal Outcomes” and “Perceptions, Attitudes, and Participation.” This report specifically highlights my reflection on the pension symposium and its significance for future research.
Principal Themes and Observations
The symposium papers highlighted the subject of dissolving solidarities through the perspective of pension policy. The studies presented indicated that global pension systems are facing intrinsic conflicts between individual accountability and group support, resulting in novel forms of inequity and social fragmentation. For instance, Matt Padley presented research on Minimum Income Standard (MIS) and Retirement Living Standards (RLS), pointing out significant discrepancies between individuals’ retirement expectations and the capabilities of existing pension systems in the UK. Similarly, Kun Lee presented a comparative investigation titled “Pension Systems and Wealth Inequality in Old Age” across 12 high-income nations, yielding intriguing insights into the paradox of redistribution.
Furthermore, the research on the gender pension gap conducted by Ellie Suh and Debora Price. Their three-pillar conceptual framework, which differentiates between accumulation and income-drawing stages, serves as an effective analytical instrument for comprehending how gap could be conceptualise or explain between groups. Another global viewpoint was a comparative examination of pension reforms in Europe and East Asia presented by Traute Meyer. Their demonstration that East Asian nations encountered concurrent demands for expansion and cost containment due to increasing ageing and the delayed creation of pension systems offered significant context for comprehending how developing countries may address analogous difficulties.
The second symposium session, in which I presented, acquainted me with novel research pathways essential for future research. Chung-Yang Yeh presented an experimental survey technique used in Taiwan to consider whether information on population ageing and pension funds affects public support for reforms exemplifies a nuanced method for comprehending policy acceptance. The findings of knowledge and policy implementation outcome also reflected in my sharing and presentation on social pensions reforms and administrative burdens from the Ghanaian context. I must say that questions and feedback gained was very helpful for further expansion of my study on the inclusion of informal workers in the pension system in developing nation settings.
The final insights were presented by Dirk Hofäcker’s from a study on Germany’s pension system. The presentation emphasised the need for improved public information and trust to enhance participation and support for multi-pillar reforms, offering valuable insights into pension policy communication and design in aging societies.
Further, the connection between pension system design and social solidarity seems to be growing more intricate, necessitating a re-evaluation of conventional beliefs regarding redistribution. The influence of information and communication on the adoption of pension policy requires further investigation, especially in circumstances where digital literacy impacts information availability. Gender disparities in pension results persist across various system frameworks, indicating a necessity for more focused interventions
Concluding remarks
This conference experience has profoundly impacted my research direction. For instance, the symposium’s focus is directly relevant to my research on informal workers participation in social security schemes in Ghana. The methodological advances introduced, especially experimental methods for examining policy adoption, provide novel instruments for exploring the impact of digital technologies on access to social protection, an area that will be worth exploring in the Sub-Saharan context. Furthermore, the international comparative viewpoint emphasised the necessity of situating social policy research within wider global trends while being attuned to local particularities. The conference’s exhibition of how ostensibly universal challenges (i.e., ageing, inequality, digitalisation) differently emerge across contexts will guide my future study design. This time at the historic city of York has enhanced my theoretical comprehension of pension policy and offered practical insights into executing robust social policy research in multinational settings. The developed networks and encountered methodological methods will significantly impact my future research contributions to the field.
Find out more about the SPA’s Pensions Policy Group and becoming a member here.
Image by Vicki Hamilton from Pixabay