The particular combination of pension pillars (including benefit types as well as more specific pension design features such as eligibility conditions, population effectively covered, benefit levels, and so on) shape the impacts the pension systems can have in each country on different groups of people and on women and men. On average in the European Union (EU), the poverty rate before social transfers (including pensions) is estimated at 44 per cent (Figure 2-1). As expected, the greatest impact of social transfers is found among older adults, who by and large rely on pensions as the main source of income.