Strategies to reduce poverty among retirees: a case of retirees from the formal sector in Kisarawe district
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Date
2010
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Sokoine University of Agriculture
Abstract
Retirement is the point at which an employee ceases to engage in paid work and qualify for
a pension. In developing countries and particularly in Tanzania, this pension scheme has
been observed to contribute little to daily life of retired employees. A study was conducted
in Kisarawe district to identify strategies that are taken by retirees in the formal sector to
generate extra income apart form pension benefits. The study identified income generating
activities (IGAs) that were done by retirees, the amount that were being earned by those
activities and factors that were influencing involvement in IGAs. A structured
questionnaire with both closed and open ended questions was used to collect primary data
from a sample of 100 respondents. Statistical Package for Social Science computer
programme was used to analyse the data. The study findings show that strategies
undertaken by retirees was to engage in various IGAs for example farming activities. The
study revealed that majority of the retirees earned incomes of below 100 000 Tshs per
month. Further more, the results found that, retirees engaged in more than one activity
received higher incomes (P< 0.01) than the ones who were doing just one activity. Time
spent in work training influenced positively the involvement in IGAs (P< 0.05). It is
concluded that there are many activities that are done by retirees to reduce poverty but the
problem is the low income they get from those activities. It was noted that low and
unreliable sources of income after retirement were obstacles to IGAs success. Thus it is
recommended that employers should be responsible for the preparation of employees
before retirement, government should review and readjust its policy about retirement
pension benefits and employees should strive to improve their education which will have
impact on salary and hence pension benefits.
Description
Thesis
Keywords
Poverty reduction, Retirees, Kisarawe district