Adequacy must allow the beneficiaries of pensions to live in dignity. The first pillar is the one on which most of the political effort should be focused, while the other pillars must complement the legal pension in order to avoid an important fall of income by assuring an appropriate rate of replacement. We can affirm that reaching a balance between active life and life in retirement -which presupposes an effective prolonging of the active life- is obviously one of the essential elements to allow financial sustainability of the system and the second element is the enlargement of the financing base, which could take place through the identification of new sources of financing.

From a family point of view, a rise in the number of years of active life encompasses the issue of professional breaks due to family reasons. These periods, which are fully part of the ‘transitional labour markets’ (as defined by OECD’s experts), must be assimilated to periods of active life in order to ensure continuity of professional career paths.

The real issue is to establish whether the contributions received in replacement of the remuneration should not be submitted, similarly to a wage, to personal contributions to the public pension systems (as it happens in Sweden) in order to ensure a continuity in the accumulation of pensions and at the same time the adequacy and financial sustainability of the system. Career breaks for care purposes must be considered as periods assimilated without personal contribution to the public systems of retirement.