A/HRC/14/31 to ensure universal protection. These principles also require taking special measures to protect the most vulnerable segments of society as a matter of priority. 59. There are essentially two types of non-contributory pensions: (a) universal schemes that ensure that every individual above a given age is entitled to receive pensions; and (b) targeted schemes that are intended to select beneficiaries on the basis of their income or poverty level and their age. To this end, several instruments could be used, such as means testing, proxy means testing, community targeting and/or geographical targeting. There are many experiences of both types of pensions around the world, but evidence described below reveals significant advantages of universal schemes in reducing poverty. 60. Universal pensions require the simplest structure with the lowest administrative costs and therefore are more likely to be successful in achieving their aims. Many developing countries provide universal pensions, such as Bolivia (Plurinational State of), Botswana, Brunei Darussalam, Namibia, Nepal and Samoa. Universal pensions avoid creating disincentives for low-income workers to save for their old age and disincentives for older persons to continue working beyond retirement age. They can also reduce opportunities for corruption, as they are available to all who meet the age requirement and there is no stigma attached. 61. Universal pensions are also more gender sensitive. In targeted programmes, existing power imbalances within society distort people’s ability to access benefits. The structural discrimination of women based on gender stereotypes that prevails in most societies means that they are less able to influence decision-making processes and, as a result, may be excluded from receiving targeted pensions. In universal schemes, access cannot be manipulated to the detriment of women. 62. Moreover, with universal pensions, men and women receive the same level of benefits irrespective of their record in the labour market, thus recognizing the contributions women make in unpaid work such as caregiving. In developing countries, universal pensions may be the only means by which most women can guarantee income in old age. Universal pensions are also crucial to older persons in countries with high HIV rates and migration as many people will call on grandparents (mainly women) to care for children. 63. While including wealthier older people in a universal scheme may be a legitimate concern of States in the context of scarce resources, when there is a high level of poverty and low contributory pension coverage, the proportion of non-poor older people covered by the universal pension is likely to be small. Moreover, evidence suggests that attempts to exclude the wealthiest from a social pension may decrease political support, create disincentives to contributing to other pensions systems and even increase the total costs.35 64. If there are strong objections to including wealthy older people in social pensions, there are ways to reduce the benefits to the wealthier beneficiaries. One way is pensiontesting that excludes those with other pensions and, if well-designed, should taper the size of the non-contributory pension benefit in line with the income received from contributory pensions.36 This reduces the disincentive for people to save for retirement. In developing countries where there are inefficient progressive income tax structures, older people on higher incomes can often be dissuaded from collecting the universal pension where the benefit is a relatively small amount. Whatever method is used to identify eligible 35 36 GE.10-12583 See Larry Willmore, “Universal Pensions for Developing Countries”, World Development, vol. 35, No. 1 (January 2007), pp. 24–51. This means that, for every unit of income received from an additional State-run (or supervised) pension, the non-contributory pension reduces by a certain amount. 13