When workers in Switzerland change employers they typically take their salary-based pensions with them. However, if they leave the country without making any pension transfer arrangements, after six months, their pension money ends up with the Substitute Occupational Benefit Institution, a kind of backstop holding place for forgotten pensions. At the the end of 2022, […]
Retirement at 68.2 to cover Swiss pension shortfall, says UBS
Swiss resident’s are regularly reminded of the large financial gap is Switzerland’s state pension system. Despite this, several attempts at reform have failed to gain sufficient support. Those that have still leave a large shortfall. On 24 January 2023, UBS published four additional reform scenarios. Only the fourth, with a life expectancy adjusted retirement age […]
Swiss government aims to cut 2 billion from 2024 budget
Like many governments across the world, Switzerland’s federal government is spending more than it collects. Extraordinary spending on Covid and refugees has pushed Switzerland’s finances into the red, a situation Karin Keller-Sutter, the current finance minister, hopes to eliminate by 2024. During its meeting on 25 January 2023, the Federal Council made preliminary decisions to […]
Switzerland has too many pigs, leading to animal welfare concerns
After slaughtering and freezing 12,000 pigs, Switzerland still has 50,000 more pigs than it can digest, reported RTS. With Swiss pig farms so full, vets are concerned animal welfare may be compromised. During the Covid pandemic when movements across national borders were restricted, Swiss farmers increased the number of pigs. When restrictions eased and imports […]
Dual nationality continues to rise in Switzerland
On 26 January 2023, data on dual nationality in Switzerland were published by the Federal Statistical Office (FSO). Between 2010 and 2021 the number of Swiss citizens over 15 years old with another nationality rose from 13.8% to 19.5%, a rise of 5.7 percentage points. The number of Swiss citizens with another nationality has risen […]
Legal complaint written in French rejected in Bern
The canton of Bern is one of a number of bilingual cantons where both German and French are spoken. However, a legal complaint made there alleging racism was rejected because it was written in French, reported 20 Minutes. The law in the canton of Bern requires legal complaints be written in the language of the […]
Eating freshwater fish equivalent to drinking polluted water for a month
A recent US study highlights the high pollution in freshwater fish. The risks are similar in Switzerland, reports RTS. The US study, published on Science Direct, is focused on levels of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. These substances take a very long time to breakdown and persist and accumulate in the environment. The foods […]
Professional training boosts pay by 46% in Switzerland
Switzerland offers workers the possibility of obtaining professional qualifications while working. Around 27,500 people graduate from these federally recognised higher vocational education programmes every year. Six years after graduating from these programmes the median income for a full-time job is about CHF 7,800 per month, compared with the CHF 5,300 received five years before obtaining […]
Firearms at home linked to Switzerland’s exceptionally high suicide rate
The male suicide rate using firearms is higher in Switzerland than the rest of Europe. According to a recently published report the higher rate could be linked to military weapons in Swiss homes, reported RTS. The report published by a researcher at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands looks at the link between firearm […]
Hospital emergency services at point of collapse in Switzerland, say doctors
Switzerland’s emergency services are at the point of collapse, according to Vincent Ribordy of the Swiss Society of Emergency and Rescue Medicine, reported RTS. The current workload is at an unprecedented level, said Ribordy. According to the newspaper SonntagsZeitung, with nearly 14,800 unfilled jobs, no sector has as many unfilled vacancies in Switzerland as healthcare. […]
