Active aging and alternatives to age-based retirement

For several decades, proposals have been made to redistribute social transfers (mainly pensions) and the time people spend on training and work (paid or otherwise) throughout the life course, in line with an analytical perspective that considers the life course as a whole, not just certain stages or transitions. One recent proposal, known as temporary leave (TL), would provide the opportunity to take temporary periods of voluntary paid exit from work over the life course, in exchange for a proportional delay in the age of retirement. This paper discusses the suitability of TL as a social policy for aging European societies.